Digimon Tamers: The King of Darkness
by AltairNamikaze
Summary: What if Takato knew about the Digimon going back to the Digital World before facing the D-Reaper? What would happen if he got sent to the Digital World instead of the Digimon? What if he remained there for three years? A new threat is coming...  Rukato
1. Where It All Began

**AN: Hey all! Finally, after 3 weeks I re-release my, new and improved, chapter one of Digimon Tamers – The King of Darkness. I have made some slight adjustments with the plot and extended the word count even further by up to 12,800 words. Which I am proper chuffed at! :D I have toned down the language in some areas. However, this is M-rated, for some (not a lot) foul language, and more possible 'acts' later on in the story.**

**Three Years after D-Reaper**

Chapter 1

Rika Nonaka was in history class, bored out of her head whilst listening to Mr. Mori droning on about something called the Second World War. She was in her final year as a senior at Shinjuku high; after transferring over from her all-girls private school three years ago during the summer. Unfortunately, she was in her history class… _'How boring!'_ Rika thought. She looked behind her and saw that her friend, Henry Wong was sitting bolt upright, listening and taking notes from Mr. Mori. _'How he does that I have no idea'_ she mused, a wry smile crept upon her face. She then looked over to her left, and noticed that the 'idiot twins', also known as Kazu and Kenta; where both asleep and drooling over their desks. She laughed slightly and quickly put on a passive look as she turned back towards the board, so that it looked like she was paying attention. She then slightly glanced to her right, she saw Jeri Katou, her only female friend sitting next to her. Her face was bright and cheerful, not what it used to be. _"Heh, I guess getting Henry to 'fess up was a good idea as any! They both look so happy now. A lot different than what it was three years ago" *sigh*_. _That_ night… three years ago, where everyone lost a friend, lost a Tamer, and lost a family member. But the one thing that saddened and hurt Rika more than anything was that; that night… she lost her first love of her life.

_****flashback****_

_The last night the D-Reaper attacked... and was defeated!_

"_Why is Ryo doing that? It doesn't have any effect on that thing" shouted Rika over the ear-splitting screams emitting from what they presumed was the D-Reaper. She was wondering why Ryo was desperately trying to inflict pain upon the D-Reaper, and it having no effect on it what-so-ever. Before Henry could answer, Takato cut him off and yelled "He knows we can't play it safe anymore!"_

_He then sped off in his Bio-Digivolution form of Gallantmon. The Tamers had all digivolved into their Bio-Merge Mega forms. Rika and Renamon becoming Sakuyamon, Ryo and Cyberdramon becoming Justimon and Henry, with Terriermon becoming Megagargomon._

* * *

_Takato was almost reaching the top off the D-Reaper's so-called 'face', when something dragged him down. It was one of the claws that had grabbed hold of him, next minute a weird looking figure came out of the D-Reaper's lower body. It looked partly human; but Takato knew it was mainly an alien form of some sort; most possibly created by the D-Reaper's merged digital form with the unknown surroundings. "Pathetic humans and your emotions! Emotions are for the weak! You need power to survive! Power! You humans have none of that! You don't deserve to live!" it screams echoed across the whole of the D-Reaper. The monster then began shouting at Gallantmon once again; this time about how humans shouldn't rely on their so called 'friends'. The scythes then emerged out of the alien looking creature and they began throwing punch after punch at Gallantmon. "Ugh, we need to fight back!" yelled Takato. Guilmon looked at his friend and asked Takato, "Is it true, Takatomon?" Suddenly, Takato became even more enraged, and screamed "NO! We do deserve to live!" Then Takato threw a punch at the grotesque thing and it let go of him. Gallantmon then punched it again and said, "It's you that doesn't deserve to live!" He threw one final punch and the alien/D-Reaper face slowly reclined back into the main body/tower. But before it disappeared it spoke; "You have guts, but in the near future you will come across something even more powerful than I have ever achieved. I thirst for that power, but only something of pure evil can harness that power. Beware Tamer… the apocalypse is coming! And if you don't do something, you along with everything else will be destroyed! Farewell… for now!" The head disappeared into non-existence, and Takato was forced to ponder those words 'it' spoke._

'_Can there be an even more powerful enemy lurking in the darkness, and even the D-Reaper cannot defeat it? Damn if that's true, then we had better be prepared' Takato thought about the words the D-Reaper just spoke, thinking about the possibility of facing an even more formidable enemy. 'What did it mean by 'only something of pure evil can harness that power'? Does that mean the D-Reaper is not pure evil enough for this power and something else is?' he shivered in fear as all these questions flew around his head._

_Gallantmon shook himself down regaining his confidence as he did; and then sped off towards the top to save Jeri._

* * *

_Meanwhile, the other Tamers weren't doing as well as Takato._

"_Get him Justimon!" shouted Megagargomon. Justimon lunged for the D-Reaper, but the D-Reaper got the best of him and started sapping all of his energy._

"_Justimon, no!" Sakuyamon shouted, she went flying in, and sliced the D-Reaper's claw in half. "Thanks Sakuyamon." replied Justimon. _

_Megagargomon was still spinning at the speed of light and the D-Reaper was starting to go back to the Digital World._

"_Yes, you're doing it Megagargomon!" Shouted Justimon, although his voice was a little bit wheezy, because he had nearly been crushed by that big claw._

* * *

_At last, Gallantmon got to the top of the D-Reaper. By this the D-Reaper was really cheesed off at losing, so it decided to speed up the process of going back to the digital world by taking all the Tamers with it. Gallantmon saw Jeri and Calumon, and started towards them…_

_Suddenly, Guilmon began to grow weak, "What's the matter Guilmon?" asked Takato who was worried for his friend. "I'm getting weaker; I can't hold this form much longer!" He was right; the rest of the other mega Digimon also began to grow weak, and soon they would de-digivolve back into their rookie forms._

"_Ok Guilmon when we lose this form, I want you to throw me at Jeri with all your might! Got it?"_

"_I got it Takato!" replied Guilmon._

"_On three Guilmon"._

"_1…_

_2…_

_3!"_

_Gallantmon then de-digivolved into Takato and Guilmon. Guilmon then swung Takato round on his tail with every last bit of energy he had, and… Takato flew off towards Jeri._

_Meanwhile…_

"_YES! Come on! Just a bit more and the D-Reaper can kiss its sorry ass and sod off back to where it came from!" screamed Ryo. Megagargomon was still spinning forcing the D-Reaper to go back to the Digital world. What they didn't know was that the D-Reaper was sending them all with it, back to the Digital world. "H... Henry, I thiiiiiink IIIIIII'm gonnnnnaaaaaa be SICK!" wailed Terriermon. "No you don't, we can't give in now, not after how far we have come!" screamed Henry._

* * *

_Takato grabbed onto Jeri, bridal style. Jeri tried her best not to blush, avoiding eye contact with Takato for a split second. She was wondering where everyone else was, not knowing that her friends where fighting; trying to save her and, most importantly, the world. 'At least Takato is here safe with me; I wonder where everyone else is?' Guilmon noticed Calumon and flew off towards him. They happily embraced each other and began to mess around with each other; for old time's sake, whilst Takato and Jeri where talking to each other._

"_I'm glad you all came for me, Takato. I was getting worried that no-one would come and find me." Jeri said, and then she broke down in tears._

"_It's ok Jeri, I'm here now, there's no need to cry. Everyone will be here soon."_

_Takato knew that everyone would be here soon, but he had to do one more thing before they all got out first._

* * *

**_**flashback**_**

**_*1 week prior to the final D-Reaper attack*_**

_Janyu Wong, Henry's father, began the scanning process on Terriermon. Takato and Henry were watching intently. Now Henry, being one of the smartest people that Takato knew, was wondering why Terriermon had to have a scan. His father turned to face them both, and explained. "I need to find out the digital composition of a normal Digimon and compare it with the relevant information that we have on the D-Reaper!" Henry nodded, ensuing that he understood. Mr. Wong turned back to the scanner and continually observed the status of Terriermon; adding some tweaks here and there._

_Takato stood further back than Henry and studied the complexities of the scanning program. He noticed a weird-looking sign in the bottom left corner, it was more of an emblem. He recognised it from somewhere, but what was it..._

_A few minutes after the scanning had been completed, Terriermon complained about his right ear being a bit funny. Henry was wondering what could have caused it, but Takato had realised what it was… Terriermon had been planted with a microchip containing the last remains of the Juggernaut program, the one program that destroys digital data. And since the digimon were digital beings that only meant one thing... if the Juggernaut program was not taken out in time, and the D-Reaper was defeated, when the Digimon where to go back to the Digital World... they would be destroyed._

**_**end flashback**_**

* * *

_Takato clenched his fist in anger, knowing what was to come!_

_Meanwhile…_

"_Yes! You're doing it Megagargomon! Just a little bit more!" yelled Sakuyamon. Justimon noticed that the warp hole was spinning too fast due to the intense force of gravity and centrifugal force. It clicked… "CRAP! Megagargomon, STOP! It's trying to suck us all back into the Digital world with it!" Ryo's voice didn't reach Henry in time, because… BOOM! A shockwave blasted from the D-Reaper's wormhole, sending Justimon and Sakuyamon flying._

"_Ugh… what the hell was THAT!" yelled Justimon, who was picking himself up off the ground. "I… don't know" moaned Sakuyamon, who was struggling to get to her feet herself. Then realization hit them… "MEGAGARGOMON!" they both screamed. The ground inside the D-Reaper's warp hole shook violently once again. "Damn! Where are they?" yelled Sakuyamon. Justimon scanned the warp hole hoping to find any signs of life, such as Henry and Terriermon…_

"_There I see them!" he yelled triumphantly. "Where… I don't see them!" yelled Sakuyamon over the trembling earthquake that was rattling Shinjuku. "There! Right there!" screamed Justimon._

_Sakuyamon finally saw where Justimon was pointing, "Right I see 'em. I'm going in!" Justimon grabbed Sakuyamon before she did anything, "ARE YOU CRAZY! You might get caught up in the warp. Even though Megagargomon actually made it reverse the process, it's slowing down, and sooner or later, it will start to warp outwards into the Real world again. Let's go and find Takato, he always knows what to do in crisis situations like this." Sakuyamon sighed, "FINE! But let's hope the gogglehead has an ace in the hole or we might not get out here alive!" Justimon turned and grinned at her before running off towards where Takato was. "So… you understand what Takato meant before, where 'we can't play it safe anymore!" Justimon glanced at Sakuyamon, who had finally caught up, "Yeh, if we don't put our all into this battle, then none of us could end up alive after tonight. However, gogglehead always has a plan, even if it is a risky one; we'd always pull it off with no-one getting remotely injured!" Sakuyamon stated._

_After over 10 minutes of running and flying (if you could call it that) they were both nearing their destination…_

"_Damn!" yelled Cyberdramon. "What's up Cyberdramon?" asked Ryo. "The Digital field is a lot weaker here, I think it's due to Megagargomon reversing the process removing the outer areas of D-Reaper first, I don't think we'll be able to hold our form much longer!" grunted Cyberdramon, Ryo could tell that this was putting strain on his Digimon partner. He glanced over at Sakuyamon; it looked like she was also struggling with holding her mega form._

"_Damn Rika, I can't hold us in this form any longer, tell Ryo quickly before anything happens!" Renamon moaned in pain, "There isn't enough Digital data here that can support our forms!" Renamon stated._

_Rika glanced at Ryo… "Ryo?" asked Rika. "Mm, yeh Rika what's up?" replied Ryo. "Me and Renamon can't hold this form any longer. If we do we'll pass out!"_

"_Damn!" Ryo then realized the seriousness of the situation. He flew towards Sakuyamon as fast as he could. "Ahh!" Sakuyamon screamed, suddenly white light surrounded her, "Damn! That's the de-digivolution process!" Ryo screamed his horror. Justimon, with lightning-fast reflexes managed to grab Rika in his arms and made Renamon somehow land gently onto his back. "Phew! I thought we wouldn't have made it!" Ryo breathed out an audible breath he didn't know he was holding. Justimon looked upwards; towards where Takato and Jeri were. "Right, we have to move now and fast if we're going to save Henry and Terriermon alive!" With that in mind Justimon shot off towards the top of the mini D-Reaper's head. 'But they're not the only people we have to save!' exclaimed Cyberdramon silently to himself._

* * *

_Takato soon heard voices; and footsteps… one pair of footsteps. "Wait, that can't be right!" Takato mused. He looked up to where Justimon looked like he was trying to have a private conversation between himself and, erm, himself. "Ahh, right! Ryo and Cyberdramon must be conversing, however, they don't know that they are doing it out loud!" he smacked his forehead, knowing that he should have seen that coming. "Typical, whenever they want to talk about something private, it always ends up being shouted out so that everyone else can hear it as well!" Takato muttered, Jeri looked on at the mega-level Digimon and just giggled, knowing full well what could happen between the two._

_Justimon, along with Rika in his arms, and Renamon on his back, finally arrived. He noticed Takato and Jeri, along with Guilmon, and Calumon. He smiled, 'Thank God! It looks like Takato defeated the miniature version of the D-Reaper by himself, well; I didn't expect anything less from our leader!'_

_Takato saw who Justimon was with. "Damn Ryo, here let me help you!" He turned to face Guilmon, "Keep hold of Jeri until later, ok?"_

"_No problem Takato!" beamed Guilmon. Takato ran over towards Ryo and grabbed Rika from his arms. Suddenly, a white light engulfed Justimon, and he de-digivolved back into Ryo and Cyberdramon. Ryo caught Renamon in his arms, whilst Cyberdramon bent down and with a hackling cough he sprawled himself out on the so-called surface. Takato looked on towards Cyberdramon; but before he could say anything Ryo beat him to it. "They're fine! They're probably just exhausted from the battle before. I mean I have to admit, I'm pretty worn out myself!" he said whilst looking at Takato with a toothy smile._

* * *

_Guilmon and Calumon where playing games with Jeri to try and cheer her up, thankfully it was working, before long she was laughing along with the two Digimon who had just told a very funny joke. Over in the distance sat Takato and Ryo discussing various things. "You know what to do don't you?"_

"_Yeh, once they get here, shove them and go. Let me go with you, I know the Digital World better than you… Takato!"_

"_No, we need as minimum casualties as possible you need to stay with them, you and Henry are joint team leader, once it happens. And make sure Rika and Jeri will be ok... especially Rika!"_

_Ryo smirked and stood with one hand on his hips, "You got a thing for fiery red heads now Matsuki?" knowing full well he doesn't like his last name being used in those types of situations._

"_W...What makes you suggest that Akiyama?" stuttered Takato. 'Damn him! How dare he use my last name for that!'_

_Ryo continued, "Don't lie, I see it. The way you look at her, or should I say gaze at her for hours on end, and plus the way you watch her walk. You really like her don't you Takato?" Ryo grinned evilly._

"_Oi! Now don't be going into details about her figure!" Takato suddenly realized his error. "Aww crap!" Takato's shoulders sagged and he sighed in defeat._

"_HA! I told you, I was right. Just admit it Takato you luuurve Rika Nonaka!" Ryo chuckled. No response… "I guess I hit a nerve there?" Ryo asked with a worrying look on his face._

"_Damn right you did Akiyama!"_

"_Anyway let's move on to a different subject. Like, how the hell are we getting out of here?" Ryo exclaimed. Takato smirked, "You forgot someone else that's with us two!" Ryo looked on cluelessly until it clicked… "Him! Damn I can't believe I forgot him. He was helping us out from the beginning isn't that right?"_

"_Hell yeh just got to wait until they get here!" Takato looked over his shoulder to look at Jeri and the other Digimon. "Don't forget about what I said before eh, Ryo?"_

_Ryo waved it off, "Yeh yeh, I know don't worry, I'll look after them, along with Henry!"_

_Takato cringed at the moment that Ryo mentioned Henry's name. "Crap! I hope him and Terriermon are ok! Otherwise we're in the deep end... if you know what I mean!"_

"_Anyway, we have to move these two over to where Jeri and Calumon are, before they get here!" Ryo said pointing at Rika and Renamon. Takato smiled, "Kazu and Kenta, eh… you had better hurry up… for everyone's sake!" he whispered._

"_Right!" said Takato, who had a grin plastered on his face. He began to walk the short distance towards Rika and Renamon, when he stopped. "What's up Takato?" asked Ryo. Takato swerved on the spot, "What!" he asked, Ryo jumped slightly at the tone of Takato's voice, he then noticed that Takato was a little agitated. "I think Renamon is coming around!" replied Ryo. "I know! That's why I'm a bit shook up!" Ryo glanced once more at Takato, with a look of confusion clearly on his face. 'What did he mean by that?' he mused. They both looked towards the fox-like Digimon, who was stirring slightly, trying to overcome unconsciousness. Gradually, after moving her and Rika partly the way over towards where Jeri, Guilmon and Calumon were situated, she came too. "Urgh! What the hell happened?" she asked looking around wondering if she could find anybody. Her sight was very blurry and she couldn't really make out who was in front of her. Ryo spoke up first, "Megagargomon got blasted somewhere and we decided to go and find Takato, so that we could come up with a further plan!"_

_Renamon looked groggily around, it was looking like the de-digivolution process, along with the D-Reaper's ferocious activities had drained all of her energy. She slowly used her paws and felt around herself, until she felt a pair of hands. 'His hands!' "So… who's next to me then?" she asked wearily. Takato sat down next to her, "It's me Renamon, Takato!" who patted her arm just letting her know that he was in fact there. Ryo then decided to intervene "There's me, Cyberdramon, Takato and Rika. However, she is unconscious at this moment in time!" Renamon heard her Tamer's name, "Rika… is she injured in anyway?" Takato grimaced, looked at the few deep cuts and bruises along Rika's body. Her favourite jeans were torn in some places, her full-hearted t-shirt wasn't doing so well either. Takato steadied his breath before replying. "Nothing we can't fix up! Don't worry Renamon!" Although he was berating himself on the inside for down-right lying to Renamon. Ryo decided to speak up and to relieve Takato of his anguish "Anyway, enough chit-chat! Let's get this show on the road!" he said whilst pumping his fist into the air._

_Takato went over to Rika and gradually hoisted her up onto his front, so that she was piggy-backing him but on the front. "C'mon Ryo, let's get this started!" he said. Ryo just starred at Takato and the position he was in, Takato saw the weird look Ryo was giving him, "You know… if this wasn't a serious situation, I'd punch your lights out right now!" Ryo paled, possibly thinking of what could have happened to him. Instead he replied "Right you are Takato! Let's go!" who was slowly picking up Renamon from her half conscious state. They started walking over towards were Jeri, Guilmon and Calumon where. Takato suddenly remembered, "What about Cyberdramon?" he asked. "Don't worry about him; he'll be with us shortly. He's just regaining his breath back!" answered Ryo. Takato sighed, "Why am I not surprised?"_

_Jeri was still laughing along with Guilmon and Calumon when she sensed movement behind her. She quickly spun round looking to see who it was. She gasped at what she saw, Ryo was in a bit of a bad shape, but what shocked her mostly were Rika and Renamon. They were totally battered and bruised, as well as being unconscious. "My God, are they going to be alright?" asked Jeri horror struck. Takato looked up from his position, "Yeh, they're gonna be fine Jeri! No need to worry!" Takato looked at Ryo, who nodded. 'He looks a bit agitated. Better hurry it up guys!' Suddenly, he sensed something; he glanced at Takato, who must have sensed it as well, because he was slowly looking around trying to find any form of life._

"_In 5…" Ryo whispered._

"_Four!..." Takato was getting a bit edgy._

"_Three…" Takato snapped, "WHERE THE FUCK ARE THEY?" he screamed._

_Still no sign of them…_

"_OIIIIIII!…TAKATO! OVER HERE!" screamed Kazu._

"_About time!" muttered Ryo._

_Kenta and Jeri were wondering what was going on between the three. Takato smirked, "Anyway, battle formation, Shioda, Akiyama!" Both stood to attention, "Hai!"_

_Kazu turned to Kenta "Let me borrow Marineangemon for five minutes. Don't worry we'll all be back soon!" he grinned. Kenta nodded dumbly, wondering what was going on, but nevertheless, let his Digimon partner go with his best friend. Kazu thanked his friend then turned around and jumped off Guardromon._

_Ryo slowly walked over towards the rest of the Digimon and Jeri, holding onto Renamon. Guilmon looked worried, "Is she going to be alright Ryo?" Ryo looked up at the Dinosaur, virus type Digimon. He then smiled, Guilmon knew what it was, a fake smile. Ryo then decided to break the tension, "I honestly don't know Guilmon!" He slowly placed her on the floor next to Guilmon. "I'll be back in a moment; I'm just going to fetch Cyberdramon." _

_Ryo walked slowly up towards his partner, "You alright buddy?" he asked whilst bending down to hoist his partner onto his back. Cyberdramon coughed, and looked up wearily, "Grr, like hell I am! *cough* Urgh!" He then made a forced smile, "Can you help me here Ryo?" Ryo smiled back, "Sure thing buddy! Give me a second!" Ryo positioned himself next to Cyberdramon so that he would be comfortable as possible. He then lifted his Digimon partner onto his back. "Argh! *cough cough* Urgh, this is what you guys call pain huh?" his body twitching in pain. He glanced at his human friend, "Thanks Ryo, for everything!" A small, but well knowing smile crept up onto Ryo's face, "Thanks Cyberdramon, I really appreciate that!" They started to walk over towards the rest of the group, with Jeri taking care of the unconscious Rika, and the now landed Guardromon tending to the injured Renamon._

_Just at that moment, Kazu landed on the ground after what seemed an eternity, he walked over to Takato. He lent over so that no one would be able to hear their conversation, "You sure about this chumly?" Takato just nodded his head slowly, Kazu continued "You do know that everyone won't be the same, without you being there to lead us all…" he slowly trailed off. "Are they all in position?" Takato asked, trying to get off the topic. Kazu glanced around slowly, recognizing that Rika, Jeri, Renamon, Cyberdramon, Calumon, Guardromon and Kenta were all safely inside 'the zone of extraction'._

"_I take it that's a yes then?" Takato sighed. "Phase one completed, phase two 'extraction' begins now!" Takato commanded. Kazu nodded his head; understanding what he had to do. He put his hands together and began doing a series of hand signs._

_Ryo glanced up at Kazu, from where he was standing he noticed his left arm slightly out of position, but he could see the fast flicking motions he had begun. Ryo's eyes widened, 'Military… how does Kazu know military signals? Wait a minute… the signal? That's it!' In one swift move, Ryo had glided upon Kazu, wrenched Marineangemon away from his grasp and shoved him towards the rest of the group. "MARINEANGEMON NOW!" Takato yelled. Suddenly, a heart-shaped bubble was heading towards the group. Guilmon realized what it was 'What! They started already?' The heart-shaped bubble was descending upon them faster than he expected. 'Damn, I'll have to move a bone or two, here goes!' Guilmon sprung onto his claws and did a 360 degree whip, causing his left arm to fracture ever-so slightly. He hissed at the pain, but otherwise landed outside the bubble's range somewhat gracefully, yet painfully. He then stumbled over towards Takato and Ryo. The group soon realized that it was Marineangemon's Kahuna Waves, only this form was the friendlier of the two. Kazu jumped up seeing that he was trapped inside Marineangemon's Kahuna Waves bubble. He seethed with rage; he was supposed to help Takato. So why the hell did __**Ryo**__ push __**him**__ into the bubble, "OI! Akiyama, what's the deal, eh?" he screeched. Ryo smirked, "You've done your job Shioda, now get outta here before D-Reaper gets its hands on you lot!" Kazu growled, "Like hell Akiyama! We were supposed to help Takato! How come you aren't in this bubble with me then?"_

"_It's simple…" Ryo trailed off._

"_What's so simple? Eh!" screamed Kazu._

_Ryo finally lost it, "WHO'S GONNA SAVE HENRY, WHEN TAKATO STOPS THE D-REAPER, EH!"_

_Kazu looked stunned, it finally clicked, "Sorry Ryo… I didn't know… Takato didn't tell me the whole plan… I'm sorry guys…" Kazu looked at his feet, drifting off into space._

_Takato stepped forward, "It's alright Kazu, you didn't know, it was my fault, I should have told you both the whole plan from the beginning…" he looked across what was left of Shinjuku; covered in the D-Reaper, towards the vortex._

"_What do you mean both of us…? I thought you told me the whole plan… Ooof!" Ryo flew forward and landed within the bubble with everyone else. "Wha…?" he looked around, then he spotted Takato talking to Guilmon, they were ready for something. "WHAT WAS THAT FOR TAKATO?" screamed Ryo, "I thought I was helping you save Henry?"_

"_It wasn't Takato, Ryo!" Guilmon stated. Ryo's eyes widened once more, stuttering, he finally got his words out "G...G...Guilmon… why?" Guilmon looked away in anguish; whilst twisting his neck towards Takato's direction. Takato knew what that meant; he sighed. He then strode forward a couple of paces._

_Takato looked up towards the sky, "That's what I thought at first Ryo, but then it hit me, I cannot endanger the people I hold dear to me, I wasn't gonna take Guilmon with me at first, but then who would take everyone back when I went away…" he trailed off into the distance. Kenta looked shocked, "What do you mean 'went away'?"_

_Takato sighed, "Now's not the time or place to be discussing this… Marineangemon take this lot outside D-Reaper, Guilmon will get Henry and Terriermon!" Takato faced them, "I know they are alive, I believe in them… I believe in you all as well!" he smiled. "Now if you don't mind, I have to stop this monster!" he turned to face Guilmon, "Ready buddy?" Guilmon nodded, "As ready as I'll ever be Takatomon!" he pumped his fist in the air. "Right, let's go buddy!" he then turned around to face everyone, "Listen, I know you're all against me on this, but let me tell you something…" he trailed off trying to look through D-Reaper to see the sky, but he couldn't manage. "There will only be one sacrifice tonight… I can guarantee that it won't be any of you lot!" He spun around on his heel, "Let's go Guilmon!" he grabbed his partner and sped up the biomerge-digivolution process. A flashing light appeared; and out of the light stepped Gallantmon._

_Everyone gasped at the way Takato and Guilmon looked when combined as Gallantmon once more. He was literally breathtaking. His body was clad in the Holy armour that had been refined and constructed from the rare and pure Chrome Digizoid. His body glistened in the small amount of sunlight that penetrated the D-Reaper's surface. His right arm had fully transformed into the holy lance Gram, as well as his left arm transformed into the holy shield Aegis._

_Ryo then noticed a symbol on the shield looked a lot like the Shinning Digivolution that Calumon was usually associated with. 'I've never noticed __**that**__ before! I've seen the Digital Hazard symbol on his chest before, like on Guilmon, but never this!'_

"_Let's roll out!" he yelled. He then flew off into the dark wasteland that was known as the D-Reaper._

_Everyone looked onwards at Gallantmon, their hopes and dreams lye within him, and thus he had begun to save the world!_

* * *

_Meanwhile, throughout the whole ordeal, Rika Nonaka was still in a semi unconscious state, but had heard bits and pieces of different conversations, mainly with Takato in. She was slowly coming to terms of what Takato Matsuki had said. Her feelings had been growing for him since the IceDevimon incident. Those words; those angry words coming from his mouth all just to protect her, she had never given him enough credit; if any at all. He was really goofy at first when she met him, and even though her feelings at the beginning was nonexistent; she decided to tease him about him loving her and she loved watching him squirm when he couldn't answer. She was hoping to God that he didn't see her blush before in the tunnel. What the hell possessed him to comment on her new t-shirt? Although inside she was dancing with joy that Takato had liked her t-shirt._

_However, during these past few battles she had seen a side of him that no one had seen before; his darker side. He had gotten more serious ever since Leomon had been killed by Beelzemon. And seeing Jeri like that made him crack. Then Megidramon formed from his hatred. It scared everyone, and when the ground started shaking and cracking Henry nearly lost his sister because of it. When he realised what he had done, Takato broke down. Thankfully, everyone recovered from that ordeal._

_However, when Jeri was captured by the D-Reaper his anger grew even more at the fact that it was his friends always getting into danger. And when Beelzemon, who had turned back to the good side; attacked the D-Reaper with all his power but had still fallen into mere Digital data. Thankfully, he still had survived due to Takato saving him before being absorbed by the D-Reaper. But Takato felt like he could have done something to prevent it. In both scenarios when he knew Jeri and Beelzemon were in danger he wished he could have done more to help. What he didn't know was that he had done more than everyone else put together. Rika knew that deep down he was feeling that this was his entire fault._

_She had decided that when this was all over; she would tell him how she really felt. And that's a challenge in itself even for an ex-cold hearted, stern person like Rika. She trusted him with everything; her mind, body and soul, including her heart. Rika Nonaka had fallen in love with Takato Matsuki from that moment onwards…_

_...But would he know?_

* * *

_Marineangemon began the ascent to extract everyone out of the D-Reaper, when a sudden jolt jerked the whole bubble about. Everyone starred off into the distance, where a couple of huge explosions where going off. "My God, he's really going for it isn't he?" exclaimed Kazu; he glanced back down, towards where everyone else was. He then looked back towards where Takato had disappeared; "GO AND KICK ITS ASS, TAKATO!" he screamed as loud as his voice would allow him. He then stood to a salute, and began observing the spectacle that was Gallantmon. He looked downwards once more towards the rest of the Tamers; Guardromon, Jeri, and Ryo where looking after Renamon, Rika and Cyberdramon respectively._

* * *

"_Crap! Where are they?" yelled Takato. He had just decimated another miniature monster that the D-Reaper had created. "That thing isn't letting us get away easily, damn!" Guilmon growled. He then spotted something that quite caught his eye, "H...hey, I think I see something in the distance… can't quite make it out though…" he sighed. Takato sprung into action, "It's better than nothing, come on, let's go!" he bolted towards the speck of life that Guilmon guided him too… until, "Damn! Just another one of those crappy monsters, oh well, as they say, slice 'em n dice 'em!" Gallantmon sprang forwards and with his lances, made the monsters into chopped liver… or so he thought. The monster's remains then suddenly combined into one huge blob of whatever it was, and with it regenerated a new and larger monster, in fact this one stood around 200 feet tall, with four arms, with an axe in each, and a head made out of what looked like an alien. Gallantmon backed away, "W..What the hell is this?" Takato stuttered looking lost for words. Guilmon brought him back to reality, "TAKATO WE NEED TO MOVE… NOW!" he screamed. Takato looked; "Wha..!" the next thing he saw was a giant axe being swung down towards him at a ferocious pace. Takato was frozen to the in fear… "TAKATO MOVE!" screamed Guilmon._

* * *

_Suddenly, out of nowhere, Grani, who somehow had managed to transform into his Flight Mode form, launched himself in front of the oncoming axe. A sickening slash was heard in the remote silence of the D-Reaper, as Grani lay there, at the foot of Gallantmon, with the giant axe embedded into his chest. "T...Taka...to, do y...you w...want to s...save every...one?" he stuttered out in raspy breath, knowing that he didn't have much time left. Gallantmon nodded slowly, "Very well, *cough cough* absorb the last remains of my power, and you shall!" Gallantmon nodded once again, and Grani disappeared from existence, all that remained was the digital data particles, that were floating about two feet away from Takato and Guilmon. Suddenly, as if they came to life, they shot towards Gallantmon, and without even thinking he put out his hand, and the particles began to merge with him. A white-light en-loped him while the rest of Grani's digital body was merging with him._

* * *

_Ryo had clambered up towards where Kazu stood. After a couple of moments they viewed Grani's demise. The Tamers watched on in shock, as Grani had been defeated by the hideous monstrosity. "GRANI!" screamed Ryo and Kazu; they could see what had happened, due to them having the best vantage spots. Kenta looked up towards them, "WHAT'S GOING ON? KAZU?" he bellowed. "That son of a bitch…" Ryo murmured, "THAT FUCKIN' SON OF A BITCH, I'M GONNA KILL HIM!" Ryo screamed; he then launched himself off Guardromon; only to be caught by his newly recovered Digimon partner; Cyberdramon. "Stop it Ryo!" he yelled, "Shouting won't do any good, Takato's gonna be alright" he turned towards Marineangemon, "Let's get this thing moving faster, now!" he motioned towards the edge of the heart-shaped bubble. He turned back again towards Kazu, "Try and calm Ryo down, do anything!" and with that he put Ryo down next to Kazu, who suddenly gave him a right hook to the face; which promptly knocked him out. Cyberdramon sweat dropped, "Thanks!" he then faced Marineangemon and went to start to make the bubble accelerate more._

"_Huh! What's this?" asked Takato. "I…I...I don't know, Takatomon. It looks like some sort of Digital data particles. I…I think they're trying to fuse with us!" replied Guilmon. "Let's do it, for Grani!" he yelled. Guilmon smiled, "FOR GRANI!" they both simultaneously screamed. And with that one final yell of courage and friendship, Grani knew he was leaving his power to the two best beings in the world. One a Digimon; and the other a Human... yes... he knew it all along._

_Once the blinding flash of white light had just about faded there stood a completely different Gallantmon. Gone was the cape, out of his back came a pair of angelic wings that shone God-like powers out of them. His Chrome Digizoid armour replaced with the even stronger Red Digizoid which covered his body in a crimson metallic red. His arsenal had also changed dramatically, gone were the shield and lance. In place was the holy sword Blutgang in his left hand; whilst in his right, he possessed the celestial spear Gungnir._

_Guilmon looked down at themselves, "Woah! Talk about an extreme makeover!" he grinned from ear to ear, "Let's go get him Takato!"_

"…"

"_Takato? Is there anything wrong? Come on let's go!" he shouted. Suddenly, Takato lifted up his head, "Thank you Grani… for everything! You will never be forgotten, as a hero of the Digital and human worlds, as a saviour, and as a friend. Goodbye my friend… and good luck!" once again he bowed his head and stood quietly. For a couple of minutes he stood there saying nothing; then he went for it. He then lifted up his head, with a newfound spirit in his eyes he stepped forwards with Guilmon and Grani. "GALLANTMON CRIMSON MODE… ATTACK! HAAAAAAAAH!" he began to run towards the 200 foot monster that the dreaded D-Reaper had created._

_The big oaf of a monster finally noticed that the enemy was beginning to move. It roared, reared its hands with the remaining three axes, and one fist clenched; it began to move forward to crush its opponent._

_Takato wasted no time in pulling out all the stops on this monstrosity. He reared his spear backwards and screamed… "FINAL JUSTICE!" and with one mighty throw of the lightning spear, it embedded itself within the body of the monster. It stumbled, gasping from the shock it had just had. However, it still kept on charging. "Shit, come on. What else?"_

"_Takato, the sword!" yelled Guilmon. 'Of course, why hadn't he thought of that sooner!' "ROYAL SABER!" he shouted, feeling his voice starting to break ever so slightly. He thrust the sword towards the monster… and severed off one of its arms. The creature roared in pain once again from the shock attack. With an arm lost and a mighty spear hanging loosely from its bloody torso, it still groaned onwards so that it could take out its prey once and for all._

"_GOD DAMN IT! DIE ALREADY!" Takato had had enough, and with one last breath of his screaming voice "CRIMSON LIGHT! ARGHHHHH!" Gallantmon soon became a blur and the creature couldn't anticipate where he was going to end up next. Suddenly, Gallantmon appeared out of thin air and grabbed his spear that was still jammed inside the monster; and released all of his remaining power at the alien-like creature channelling it through the spear. "HAAAAAAAAAH!" There was a flash of blinding white light, and they knew no more._

* * *

_Cyberdramon heard a big explosion over his shoulder; where Takato was previously; "O...Oh M...My G...God! We gotta move now 'Angemon!" Marineangemon nodded in acknowledgement "Yeh, let's go… Takato…" they both turned around witnessing the blinding flash of white light "Crap, I hope Henry and Terriermon survived!" he cursed once more. "Now's not the time Cyberdramon, let's move" whispered Marineangemon. Cyberdramon sighed, "Yeh ok… let's move!" In one last vital push towards the edge of the D-Reaper's barricade, they finally broke through. "YESSSS!" screamed Kazu, and with that scream of joy Ryo was woken up. "Wha... What's going on?" he asked, slurring his words. "We're out… look!" Kazu pointed towards Shinjuku Park where they used to hang about. "Hey, I see something, look… over there!" squeaked Jeri, who pointed towards a mass clump of dark figures. Ryo tensed and tried to get into a fighting stance, but was still recovering from Kazu's punch before, "Ugh! I'll get you later Shioda. Anyway, be on guard, you never know who they, or what they are!" Kazu nodded and did the same, whilst Jeri went over towards Rika and the rest of the Digimon. Cyberdramon, however, got up and started to try and walk towards Kazu and Ryo. Kazu noticed out of the corner of his eye, "Hey Cyberdramon you really shouldn't be up and about…" but he was cut off abruptly, "Quiet Kazu, I am more than enough of whoever it is in front!" he said, and begrudging his aching body; he leaned into an advanced Taekwondo stance. Ryo looked at his partner, who just grunted and nodded towards him, Ryo smiled, "Leave it Kazu, Cyberdramon knows who's ahead! But never-the-less… be ready!" Kazu nodded and grinded his teeth in frustration._

* * *

_Two figures were flat and sprawled along the floor of the rocky, baron wasteland. One of the figures gave a slight stir in the eyes, and then groaned as the pain took over him… "Ow! My head, oh God where did we land?" he stood up on his hind legs and sniffed the air; "Wait… *sniff sniff* I think I can smell them… *sniff sniff* YES I CAN! WOOOOO! We are so outta here!" he screamed ecstatically. The other figure sat bolt upright as soon as he heard his partner scream his lungs out at the last bit, "Ow! My ears Guilmon, you didn't need to blow them off!" yelled Takato. Guilmon was jumping up and down like the mad dinosaur he was, "Yeh, but Takatomon I can smell them, I know where they are!" Takato's eyes widened, and tried to stand up gingerly on his legs; but then collapsed back down. "Argh! I think my leg is broken; Guilmon can you help me up buddy, please". He sighed, realising what Guilmon had just interpreted, "Well then… why didn't you say so in the first place!" he panted._

_Guilmon giggled, "It's 'coz you're lazy and didn't hear what I said first!" Takato groaned, "Fine! Come on, let's go!" he started to drag his battered and bruised body towards Guilmon. Guilmon smiled, who moved closer towards his partner, "Come on, it's this way!" he pointed out his left claw eastwards towards the warp hole connecting both worlds. Takato grunted in response and they began their journey towards the centre._

* * *

_Cyberdramon tensed up, "Stop! Wait here!" he stated in a commanding tone. Before anyone could mention anything, he shot off into the mist to find out who, or what those figures where._

_He had been gone for about 10 minutes now, and Ryo was getting a bit agitated. Kazu clearly noticed this and decided to reassure his friend, "Don't worry Ryo, Cyberdramon knows what he's doing!" he said whilst patting his friend on the back. Suddenly, they felt a shift in the air movement; they both got into martial arts stances ready for anything. Kazu grinded his teeth once again and withdrew a small blade, Ryo noticed this, "A kunai?... Where did you get one of them Kazu?" Kazu shot him a smirk, "For me to know and for you to find out!" and with that he charged forward towards the oncoming figure. Suddenly, 'WOOOSH… CLANG!' "Whoa! What the…? BLOODY HELL KAZU, YOU COULD HAVE TAKEN MY HEAD OFF WITH THAT THING!" Ryo looked forward, he knew that voice, "Oi! Cyberdramon, you alright?" he yelled. He could see two figures coming back from the foggy area. Cyberdramon then appeared holding Kazu over his shoulder with his kunai in his other hand; he walked up towards Jeri and dumped Kazu unceremonially on his ass. He then leaned forward and whispered to Jeri "Look after this manic for me ok?" he smiled at her, Jeri giggled "Yeh ok Cyberdramon" she turned to Kazu "Why did you just run off like that, dummy!" and promptly bonked him on the head, "Ow! Hey what was that for?" he screamed._

"_Kazu Shioda, that is no way how you speak to a lady!" a voice yelled. Kazu paled, "Oh… crap!" he slowly pivoted on the spot and his mother was towering over him with a stare that would even make the dead roll over in their graves. Kazu quickly turned to Jeri and bowed "Gomenasai Jeri!" he spoke in calming yet very worried tone. Jeri smiled then giggled, "It's alright Kazu" she then turned to look at everyone else, Mr. and Mrs. Matsuki, Mr. and Mrs. Wong with Suzie, Kazu's parents, Kenta's mom and dad, and Yamaki. But she couldn't see her parents or any member of her family for that matter. She stopped a small sob from escaping out of her mouth; everyone's parents were here apart from her own and Ryo's father. Mr. Matsuki noticed that Jeri's parents weren't here, "Yamaki, where are Jeri's parents?" The man known as Yamaki, with his crisp black suit and dark shades was fixated on one Jeri Katou. He looked down towards the floor, "They're not here…" he whispered. "I can see that! But where are they?" he asked again sternly. Jeri could sense the anger in Mr. Matsuki's voice, "Anou, Mr. Matsuki…" He turned to her, "Please call me Takehiro, Jeri" he turned once again to Yamaki, "Well, Yamaki? Aren't you going tell us?" Yamaki coughed and looked upwards towards everyone, "Jeri's parents have said that, and I quote "She left on her own, so she can come back on her own" that's what her father has said" he looked down towards the floor looking crestfallen._

_Suddenly, a very loud rumbling noise erupted from behind them. Instinctively, the three digimon sprung into action, Marineangemon's Kahuna Waves appeared around everyone, whilst Guardromon and Cyberdramon repelled most of the while light and noise that erupted there, suddenly, three figures flew out of the light and barged themselves into both Digimon._

* * *

**_**few minutes before**_**

_Guilmon and Takato where still struggling within the D-Reaper towards where Guilmon said Henry and Terriermon where. "How much longer Guilmon *cough cough* please… I don't think we can last much longer in here…" he trailed off, exhaustion nearly consuming him into unconsciousness. Guilmon panted, "Nearly there Takatomon, just hang on. Then it'll be all over!" Takato smiled, Guilmon didn't know how right he would be._

"_Hey, I see them Takato, look about 50 yards away, look!" Guilmon shouted. Takato looked forwards and noticed two slightly crumpled figures on the floor of the D-Reaper, suddenly a pang of realization hit him "No! They're not moving! No! No!" He let go of Guilmon, but with his counter-weight gone he himself crumpled to the floor. He gradually forced himself onto his hands and his one good knee and started crawling towards them. Guilmon looked on solemnly, hoping that Henry and Terriermon where ok, as well as everyone else, 'I hope they got out before that blast reached them'. Suddenly, he saw some movement out of the corner of his eye. He span round so fast he nearly knocked them over… it was only Takato, He grabbed a hold of his partner for more support, "Help me take the Juggernaut microchip outta Terriermon's right ear please, buddy!" he spoke softly. Guilmon nodded to acknowledge he understood, "Yeah, will do Takato. Let's move them slowly." Takato nodded in response, he could feel his throat aching and becoming dry due to his exhaustion and with hardly any strength. They rolled over Henry and Terriermon, checking that they were both still breathing; Henry especially, Takato got his right hand and slowly put it down Terriermon's right ear. After a couple of minutes fiddling around inside Terriermon's ear; Takato, with his tongue sticking out in annoyance finally felt something. "Ah, I think I've got it" he whispered. Suddenly, his hand closed around something small and rectangular. Feeling a surge of electrical force in his hand, Takato pulled it free from Terriermon's ear._

_Feeling it once more crackle with electrical energy in his now open palm, Takato looked at it. It wasn't overall that big; about as long as Takato's little finger, and was roughly as wide as a small key. 'How can something this small hold so much power?' he wondered, thinking back to the original Juggernaut release. Takato could see the electrical current coursing through the microchip itself. Without much thought, Takato clenched his palm and readied himself for the unthinkable. Guilmon glanced at his feet and spoke to Takato, who he thought as a life-long friend, "Takato, what are you going to do now?" he spoke slowly. Takato, still looking at his palm enclosed in it the microchip containing the most powerful program in the world, Juggernaut, not even looking up to acknowledge his partner's question. Instead he addressed him much differently, "Container of the Hazard…" Guilmon snapped his neck up looking at Takato, with his eyes full of surprise, no one had ever called him __**that**__ before thinking. 'So what's up with Takato?' So instead he played along and addressed him back, "Yes! Tamer of the Hazard…" this time it was Takato who snapped his neck upwards to look at Guilmon, looking confused for a moment, then he smirked "I need you to digivolve into Growlmon and take Henry and Terriermon outta here, now!" he continued. "Guilmon, for a friend…" he glanced off towards the warp hole, which had suddenly begun to expand at a rapid pace. Guilmon stared back at his partner, he sighed, "Of course Takatomon, but on one condition…" he began before being cut off, "No, not on one, not on any condition. We all need you now Guilmon, more than ever!" he looked up at his partner, "Please! __**I**__ need you!" he looked away as he said so, gripping the Juggernaut chip even harder and felt it pierce his skin. Guilmon noticed a few drops of blood on the floor next to Takato. Guilmon nodded, knowing full well what he had to do. "Ok Takatomon. I'll do it! But never, ever call me __**that**__ name again! However, promise me one thing…" he glanced at him once more, "We will all see you again!" he struggled with the emotions stirring up inside him to keep a straight face._

_Takato noticed this and replied, "Of course Guilmon. It may be sooner than you think!" he winked at his partner, spun around and limped towards the warp hole on his one good, last standing leg. Standing on the edge waiting for his ultimatum he leaned over the never-ending vortex; he could just about spy the desert where all the Tamers had first arrived in the Digital world. He turned back towards Guilmon, who was now Growlmon; he had Henry on his back and Terriermon sort of clinging onto his left arm. He stepped forward slightly, "Hey Growlmon, before I go I want to give you something!" he took off a chain that was worn around his neck and threw the object at Growlmon. He swiped his right claw at the incoming object… caught it and he looked at it. He gasped; it was Takato's golden D-Ark, the new one he received after his Megidramon digivolution, because his original red D-Ark was cracked and destroyed. "Takato, this… this is…" Growlmon's voice wavered slightly, trying to control his emotions. But couldn't, and he let the tears flow freely; "You don't know how much this means to me!" he screamed. Takato grinned, "That thing will let you know certain things in due time!" Growlmon looked confused, wondering what he had meant, nevertheless he nodded. Takato continued, "Also, you can only show the Digimon this! If anything where to happen to it... __**do not**__, and I repeat __**do not**__ tell anyone, that includes the other Digimon as well!" he sighed, he really wished he didn't have to do this, but there wasn't any other option. Growlmon wrapped the D-Ark around his neck. Suddenly, the D-Ark begun to __**sink**__ into his chest. Once it was firmly in place, he looked back towards Takato. "Well then!" he began to limp slowly backwards, on his one good leg, towards the vortex that would take him only God knows were. Smiling at his friend and Digimon partner he stuck his hand in the air and waved. He then said two words that would stay in Guilmon's mind forever, "Ja Ne!" and Takato Matsuki promptly flipped backwards into a swan-dive, and was lost into the unknown abyss._

"_TAKATOOOO!" screamed Growlmon; with the winds howling with him._

* * *

_Growlmon choked back tears before turning around and began running off towards the edge of the D-Reaper, thinking about his tamer and friend. Suddenly, the whole of the D-Reaper began to shake uncontrollably; Growlmon could see a bright light coming out from the centre of the warp hole. He could feel the heat that the blast of light was giving, "Crap; better move!" he readjusted Henry on his back and began to run even quicker. He glanced over his shoulder and noticed that the warp hole began to disorientate itself with the power velocity. It suddenly expanded rapidly and nearly threw Growlmon off balance. Growlmon sighed, "It's gonna try and bring me with it. Just great! Just...GREAT!" he screamed. He shrugged his shoulders, "Oh well, no time like the present!" and with that he crossed the final Digital Mass layer._

_Suddenly, pain erupted through Growlmon's body; making him convulse slightly. "Urgh! Too close for comfort there!" another jolt of pain, "Urgh! Gotta move quicker, my body can't hold much longer!"_

_Another flash of exceedingly bright light temporarily blinded Growlmon. "Crap! Now I can't see!" he stumbled forward, knowing that the D-Reaper would still try and take him with it. He crouched down onto all fours and scrambled himself forwards, over rocks and whatever was left of the plant-life in Shinjuku. 'Actually, the plant-life looks barely untouched, yet everything else is being devoured. What the hell?' He could feel the light pulsating slightly, along with the heat dying down from the overly bright light. Suddenly, the light gave out and Growlmon refocused his sight back to normal; so that he could see where he was going. He glanced back ever so slightly and gasped… the D-Reaper's vortex was right on top of him. "Awww, bloody great! I need help and now!" he moaned. "Do you want to fly, Guilmon?" a voice echoed through the air. "Huh! Who was that?" he gasped, he was running out of energy and fast. "I said. Do you want to fly, Guilmon?" Growlmon recognized the voice, "Grani!" he span his head around in all direction looking for the source of the voice, but could not find it. "Where are you?" he wheezed. Grani's voice echoed once more, "I am here, yet; I am not. I have come to ask you one simple question. Do you want to fly?" the voice asked once more. Growlmon's head nodded slowly, due to exhaustion, and replied albeit slowly, "Yes… Grani, I… I want to fly!"_

"_Humph! What was that? I can't hear you?" Growlmon looked surprised, no not surprised, more like downright shocked… Grani had smirked or snorted, he didn't know which. But that ticked him off. "Grani if you can hear me… I want to FLY!" Growlmon screamed out, he was desperately trying to hold on to consciousness. The voice sighed, "Very well. You shall fly!" the voice then disappeared with the wind, allowing the loud noises that the D-Reaper was making come back to reality to Growlmon._

_Suddenly, Growlmon felt a horrible and excruciating pain coming out of his back. "Argh! What the hell's happening?" he screamed, trying to look at his back._

_He then felt two large objects procuring out of his back, just narrowly missing Henry's body. Growlmon used his left arm to readjust him. "Do not worry Guilmon. I will not hurt Henry; he is also one of the Tamers. We wouldn't want anything happening to him now would we?" Growlmon looked towards his back once more; it sounded as if Grani's voice was coming from the object. "Grani, what is this?" he asked. Grani sighed, "Take a look; or should I say __**feel**__ for yourself!" Growlmon's arm reached for his back once again to feel a pair of hard, yet sturdy metal wings procuring from his back. Growlmon gasped, "Grani, what did you do?"_

"_Oh well, you know. I gave you the last of my power to live on. I wouldn't want it going to waste. And besides, Takato has the other half of me left in him. So I am still not completely gone; you know what I'm saying?" Growlmon smiled, realizing what Grani's voice was getting at. "Thanks Grani… for everything!"_

_The voice of Grani chuckled, "You are most welcome. Now… get these two out of here! Use my Majestic Wings that I have given to you!" and with that final sentence, Grani's voice breathed its last, and was lost forever._

…_._

_Or was it?_

…_._

"_Nearly there, come on legs; move faster!" he yelled; his legs moving vigorously to avoid their doom._

_He glanced up to where his body was taking him, he could spy out the last of the Digital barriers slightly north-west of his position. "Right, let's see what these wings are capable of doing!" he began flapping them eagerly. He could feel the extreme pressure that they were putting on the air around him. Growlmon smirked, "Let's go!" and with an almighty crimson flash, Growlmon shot off north, towards the end of D-Reaper with the warp hole hot on his tail._

_He then made a sharp diagonal left turn, towards the weakened section of the D-Reaper's barrier. This was due to the rest of the Tamers getting out within Marineangemon's Kahuna Waves bubble. "Right, now's my turn!" and with one final leap, Growlmon launched his battered and bruised body along with Henry and Terriermon through the outer layer protection barrier of the D-Reaper. He swiftly altered his body, so that Henry and Terriermon wouldn't become even more injured as they already were._

_As he glanced back at the wretched place that he was leaving, that was known as the D-Reaper; one thought went through Guilmon's mind, "Takato… Wherever you are Takato, hopefully the Digital world, you had better be alive… for everyone's sake!" he smiled slightly, clutching the golden D-Ark close to his chest; knowing that his friend and partner would not go down without a fight._

_Suddenly, he crashed into two smaller figures, "Oof, bloody hell Guilmon. You could have forewarned us that you were going to digivolve!" groaned an all too familiar voice, Growlmon smirked, "Cyberdramon… thanks…" and with that Growlmon passed out from exhaustion._

* * *

"_Yo… Guilmon!"_

"_Hey… you there, Guilmon!"_

"_OI! You stupid virus-type! Wake up!" yelled a voice. "Hey take it easy, he won't like that!" spoke another distant voice._

"_He won't like this either...__HEY! Guilmon, Takatomon's here!"_

_That jolted Guilmon awake, "NO HE'S NOT! HE'S GONE!" he screamed, grabbing Cyberdramon and put him up against the wall occupying him. "HE'S GONE… AND DON'T YOU FORGET IT!" he snarled viciously. His eyes were bloody red and his teeth could even be seen getting sharper. Everyone that surrounded them backed off; they had never seen Guilmon this angry, apart from that one time when he dark digivolved into…_

"_H...Hey G...Guilmon. C...an y...you p...p...put m...me do...wn p...p...plea...se?" Cyberdramon gasped, he didn't know that his fellow Digimon had this much destructive power when blinded by rage._

_Guilmon did not listen to him, instead he pinned him up tighter and brought his face to within inches of Cyberdramon's petrified body. "I… I have just had to go through hell for the past hour; I would like to see how you would endure with seeing your partner being swallowed whole by that evil-infested thing, and gone forever! So don't you tell me that my partner is right here, right now; because I have just seen him been eaten alive, and possibly been taken to the God-forsaken Digital world; along with the D-Reaper!"_

_Renamon gasped, she had never heard Guilmon talk of his home like that before. She stepped forward, only to be shouted at… "Don't even THINK of coming any closer… and I mean ALL of you!"_

_Renamon had had enough, "Listen Guilmon, Takato wouldn't want you to be speaking about your home like that!" she yelled. Guilmon swiftly turned towards her, dropping Cyberdramon in the process. "And what would you know, eh! Seeing the most precious thing in your life suddenly being taken away from you; I can bloody say what I want, seeing as no one here has seen that! That GOD DAMN D-REAPER caused all of this. But now that it's gone, we just all move on, is that it? We may have won the battle against the D-Reaper but we lost our leader in the process!" Guilmon couldn't scream anymore and crouched down into a ball on the floor and rocked himself; tears cascading down his face, and his arms wrapped around his hind legs. He whispered, "You don't know what I've just seen! I've just seen hell! It was nothing like I've ever experienced!"_

_Cyberdramon slowly got up and walked over towards his Digimon partner, and bent down next to him. Renamon eased herself forward towards Guilmon, hoping that he had now calmed himself down long enough. They were both sat either side of Guilmon until everyone else slowly walked towards the trio and sat down along with them (parents and all, including Yamaki). Guilmon's crying had eased slightly too only a whimper. He hiccupped slightly, and then looked up. All around him where his friends and family surrounding him, "I… I saw his leg get broken…" everyone gasped at what he had just told them, Kazu choked on what he was eating, trying to calm down himself. Takato's mother burst into tears at what Guilmon had just told them. She just buried her face into her husband. Takehiro cradled his wife's body in his arms, hushing and reassuring her. Renamon was about to open her mouth to speak, when a hand appeared on her shoulder. She looked around, it was Cyberdramon, and he was shaking his head. Cyberdramon nodded back to Guilmon, motioning for him to continue. Guilmon took a deep breath, and continued, "I saw him struggle to get the Juggernaut chip out of Terriermon's ear. I saw him limping over towards the edge of D-Reaper… I… I saw him jump into D-Reaper never to be seen again…"_

"_He's bound to be alive Guilmon. I mean… come on this is Takato we're talking about. He's as hard-headed as... as... YOU!" boasted Cyberdramon who pointed at the dino Digimon. A small twitch of the side of his mouth enlarged into a smirk plastered on Guilmon's face, "Yeh I know he is! But he's still in the Digital World, alive or dead, how would we possibly know. And plus there is no way any of us can travel to the Digital world, without the aid of a Digital portal!"_

"_The Digi-portal? THAT'S IT!" everybody span around to look at a very beaten-up and exhaust Henry Wong, who had just fallen out of his coma-like state. His father, Mr. Wong ran over to his son and grasped him in a bone-crushing hug, "You shouldn't be so reckless with your life Henry, we could have lost you!" he choked back tears as he said this. "Yeah, I know. But we have lost Takato in the process. I would have rather taken his place instead, seems as I was the one who caused the warp hole in the first place…" he trailed off. "DON'T SAY THAT! HOW IS IT YOUR FAULT?" everyone looked on in shock as it was Jeri that had spoken. Henry was speechless; he bowed his head in shame. "It was my fault though, if it wasn't me and Terriermon reversing the process of the D-Reaper then none of this would have happened". Ryo was the first one to recover, "Yeh, about that…" everyone turned back towards Ryo to listen to what he had to say. "Before he left us, Takato told me two things: one, do not look for him no matter what; and two, he has made me and Henry joint Tamers leader!" Henry snorted in disgust, "HA! Me and You; joint Tamers LEADER! You are having a laugh right, some joke that is Ryo… he can't be gone… how can he…" Henry trailed off, tears streaming down his face trying to contain his emotions, but to no avail. "How can he be alive…" he turned to Ryo, addressing him as he spoke. Ryo looked a bit perplexed, due to the fact that Henry just did a 360 on his emotions. "How can you say that when Guilmon has just explained it to us; he SAW him JUMP into the D-Reaper vortex! How can you possibly think he is alive, never mind looking for him? And bollocks to me and you being joint Tamers leader! You really think we're both up to the challenge that Takato has left us? Huh! Why hasn't it gotten through your head that Takato; and only Takato; can lead the Tamers!"_

_Ryo lost it, "You don't think I know that already! I tried to convince Takato to let me do it instead…" everyone looked at him shocked that he would give up his life. "He stated to me and Kazu and everyone else!" he pointed over his shoulder where the other Tamer was, "That he hadn't told me and him everything! I only knew slightly more information than Kazu! Hell, Kazu even tried to convince him out of the plan! But he would have none of it! I don't think that we're not up to the task that Takato has left us… I __**know**__ that we are not up to the challenge! So stop putting the blame on me and Kazu especially, just because we knew some information about his so-called master plan and you didn't!" _

_With all the yelling, shouting, and cursing; it wasn't long before one Rika Nonaka was stirred out of her slumber. She tried moving her aching and worn-out body into an upright position, but just couldn't manage. She could feel that her left leg had snapped cleanly in two. Kazu noticed out the corner of his eyes that Rika was slowly coming around. Ryo was still ranting and raving at Henry, yelling that it wasn't his fault that Takato didn't tell them everything. This was the moment that Kazu stood up and started to walk away from where everyone was situated. Everybody else stopped what they were doing and looked over to where Kazu was travelling to. He bent down towards Rika and helped her slowly sit upright. "Don't strain yourself, Rika. Take it easy, your leg is broken cleanly, thank God!" He spoke slowly. Rika smirked, keeping the pain she had received inside of her, "Tch, I can look after myself, baka!" Kazu smiled, knowing that was her way of saying thank you. He sighed, "Yeh ok… whatever!" Rika didn't like that, she didn't like that at all; that with one swift kick of her clumsy and damaged left leg he smacked Kazu in the crown jewels. A painful sickening sound could be heard; Kazu then went blue in the face. He opened his mouth, with a look of pain and anguish upon his facial features. And with that he keeled over and was knocked unconscious with his head hitting the floor first._

_She then looked up at everyone in attendance and stuck her left hand up and waved slowly, "Hi" she spoke weakly. *cough cough* "Urgh! I don't feel too good!" Ryo stopped ranting at Henry and walked over to Rika and spoke "Hey princess, you alright?" Rika's facial features contorted into a look of anger and pain, "Don't call me that again, baka!" She then looked up at him, "And to answer your question, what does it look like…" she sighed; due to that a lot of energy had been used up in her Mega form before. She looked around at everyone; she started counting the number of heads in the group. The monster makers, all six of them (including Henry's father) along with Riley and Tally from Hypnos where all there. Rika began counting again; "1… 2… 3… 4… … 25… (including herself) where's Jeri's parents?" she wondered. Yamaki sighed, "Ask Mr. Matsuki when you get the chance…" his voice drifted off; Rika then remembered someone else as well, "Hey, what about your father?" Ryo sighed, "Well, my father couldn't make it. No big deal, the Kawasaki ward isn't that far; I'll just catch the next train later!" he stood up and began walking away. Rika shifted herself to get into a better position for her badly damaged leg. She watched Ryo walk off towards the outskirts of the park. Just as he was nearly out of her sight, she remembered someone else, the person who gave up their life for everyone; the person who stopped the D-Reaper single-handedly, (although she doesn't know that... yet). Her voice rose, "HEY, where's Takato?" everyone was in their own conversation until Rika mentioned his name, even Ryo slowed to a stop just where they could all see him. They all stared towards her, unable to utter a word, creating an uneasy silence. Mrs. Matsuki was still crying into her husband's shoulder, trying her best to hide her tears. Rika noticed this and raised her eyebrows slightly, 'What's up with Takato's mom?' Ryo decided it was the time to speak up, "Not using Gogglehead now are we Rika?" he half-grinned. Rika's face went the same shade as her hair. She spun away, trying to hide the blush; "S...shut up, idiot! Where is he anyway?" she shifted back around on her backside, only to notice that everyone's faces were now holding looks of anguish and sadness. Ryo spoke up again, "Listen Rika, please don't fly off the handle at what I am about to say…" Rika cut him off "What's happened to Gogglehead?" she asked again, her voice edging slightly higher. Ryo could tell this wasn't going to be pretty, "Takato's…" he sighed, trying to get a hold of himself; his hands changed into fists. "Rika… Takato's gone…" he trailed off unable to keep eye-contact with Rika any longer._

_Rika sat in stunned silence... Takato... gone? She stuttered, "T...that can't be true! HE'S NOT GONE!" she then spun on Guilmon, "WHY? Why did you let him do it? You know how much he means to us... how he means to me..." she trailed off into a whisper and broke down crying. Everyone was shocked that she had accused Guilmon of the disappearance of Takato. Guilmon trudged over towards her and put a reassuring hand/claw on her shoulder. He slowly bent down towards her right-side of her face and whispered in her ear, "Don't worry Rika, we'll get him back; for all of us... and also for you". She jolted her face to look up at Guilmon, she could tell that, even with his battered and bruised body, and that he had just been through hell... she knew he was telling the truth. He winked at her, "He'll be alive. I know it! I can feel it!" He then pointed to a spot just above were the human heart would be, "Trust me I can feel him!" Suddenly, a small portion of his chest began to glow; only allowing Rika to see, and capture a glimpse of the golden D-Ark in Guilmon. She smiled, and just before the unconscious world took her over once again, she managed to whisper something back to Guilmon, something that he would remember for a long time, "Thank you... Guilmon!" Guilmon then picked her fragile body up as carefully as possible and he walked over to where her mother and grandmother were standing. Before any of them could open their mouth Guilmon responded, "She'll be fine... just exhausted and needs plenty of rest!" Her mother and grandmother then took Rika's body off Guilmon and cradled her like she was their new-born child._

_Guilmon noticed everyone was with their families apart from Ryo and Jeri. He saw Ryo beginning to walk over towards Jeri, before Henry beat him to it. Guilmon saw Ryo's mouth twitch into a smile, and saw him mouth something in the direction of those two, he then began walking towards the outskirts of Shinjuku Park. Guilmon decided that it was best to follow him..._

* * *

_Ryo looked around at everyone, everyone was with their families, except Jeri and himself, he smirked. He began walking over to her, but Henry beat him to it. "Hey Jeri, over here!" Ryo's mouth twitched ever-so slightly into a smile, "Good luck Henry. You will need it". And from there he turned around and continued to walk off into the outskirts of Shinjuku Park; out of sight of everyone._

_After a short while of him walking, he could faintly hear loud, yet slow footstep behind him. Ryo glanced back to see who was following him towards the edge of the park... "Show yourself!" his voice echoed across the darkness of the trees. The large dinosaur Digimon stepped out from the shadows to reveal himself, "What's up Ryo?" he growled in an unusual raspy voice. Ryo shrugged his shoulders, "Nothing! Just thought I could finally get some peace and quiet now, with everyone with their families!" he replied. Guilmon sighed, "Come and follow me... I've got something to show you..." he trailed off as he began to walk away. Ryo had no other option but to follow him to God-knows where._

_After about 10 minutes of walking through the park, Guilmon and Ryo walked over a small bridge towards a location that Ryo begun to recognise. "Hey, isn't this near the hide-out you used to stay in?" asked Ryo. Guilmon nodded and plopped down on a mound of grass. He spoke; "Yeh, in fact we're sitting on top of it..." he trailed off, his voice sounding weary. Ryo looked a bit surprised, "Really?" he asked. Guilmon just gave him a lazy nod of the head, he sighed, "When I used to stay in here, I would always just break out and l just lies on top of it, like we are doing now..." Ryo nodded, showing that he understood. Guilmon continued, "It's a great way to just forget about everything, and to let your emotions run free..." Guilmon choked on his last couple of words. He chuckled slightly, "I got something to tell you... and only you Ryo..." Ryo just sat there quiet and nodded his head showing that he understood. "This will be classed as a warning... something is going to happen within two months... and no-one will be able to stop it!"_

_Ryo could feel his eyes getting wider with shock. He body starting to shake until he fell to the floor. He used his hands as supports as he rolled onto his back. As he stared up into the night sky, he could feel his eyes beginning to water slightly with emotion. His emotions took over him and he could feel the tears streaming down his face... and he knew they were never going to stop..._

* * *

_Meanwhile..._

"_Heh, it's not so bad! I think I could get used to this; staying in the Digital world, I'll like it here. I'll help restore it to its former glory! Just you watch me guys! The Digimon will be here soon!" and with that being said, Takato Matsuki hit the ground... hard. "Oof! Bloody hell, gotta work on the landings!" He struggled to his feet and glanced around. He sighed, "Well, let's get to it!" he glanced at his right arm... "Are you with me...?" His arm flashed a searing bright colour; as if it was responding. Takato nodded as he strolled off into the remains of the desert, journeying into the unknown._

_****end of flashback****_

'_Takato... what are you doing now? Are you still alive? I... I still love you... love you... so much!' _thought Rika, just about managing to contain her emotions in check. She shook her head and cleared her thoughts. _'And not just Takato... but the Digimon as well. A couple of months later they left without a trace on the planet. I hope they have found you Takato... if you are still alive'._

**CHAPTER 1 COMPLETED.**


	2. Midnight Fight

_What if Takato knew about the Digimon going back to the Digital World before facing the D-Reaper? What would happen if he got sent to the Digital World instead of the Digimon? What if he remained there for three years? A new threat is coming..._

* * *

**AN: Hey again, Altair here! This is the newly redone Chapter 2 of Digimon Tamers – TKoD. I did promise everyone that I would increase the chapter sizes to 4,000 and I am slowly, but surely, getting there. =D**

**I apologise for the amount of rework and reposting of the first chapter. I screwed up when I reposted it the first time by not toning down the foul language (even though this is M-rated, I don't want there to be a swear word in every sentence). The second time I re-uploaded it wasn't long enough in my opinion, so I extended. Thankfully, it is all fixed and completed! YAY!**

**I also apologise at how long this chapter has taken to get out. I've not done any uni work over the past 3 days 'coz I seriously wanted to get this chapter out and get the ball rolling. I didn't want to leave you guys hanging.**

**Oh yeah, I forgot the Disclaimer for the first chapter... Renamon would you be so kind and tell everyone...**

**Renamon: *Stares out the corner of her eyes* Flattery will get you nowhere...**

**...Okay...*Runs and cowers into a corner***

**Renamon: Fine... Altair does not own anything Digimon related. If he did there would have already been a sequel for Tamers.**

* * *

'_Snap!'_

That one, extremely quiet sound was enough to make a pair of dark red eyes flicker open. They darted about the cold, dark room; looking for the source of the noise. The pair of eyes closed, suggesting that they were not bothered by the noise and did not deem it a threat. The night sky shone through a small, solitary window in the cramped and horrible smelling room. Through the window you could see an object of sorts, a large spherical orb hanging from what seem masses of streams connected from the world itself, down towards the ground.

"_**Grrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"**_

The eyes snapped open this time; as wide as saucers and full of panic. They then scrunched up in confusion as if they were wondering what on earth could make a noise as loud and fearful as that. The eyes shifted upwards and revealed a face... well, the top half of its face; the bottom half, including its nose, mouth and everything else below the ears was clothed in some sort of mask. The dark, red eyes where now more prominent in the way the human was positioned. Brown, unruly hair matted the top of his head and part of his facial features.

The human then concentrated on what that grotesque noise was not two minutes ago. _"What the hell was that...? A Digimon? Possibly... I mean... there is so many of them damn things about..."_ the human thought. The human moved its body into an upright position, a jacket that was covering the person, slowly fell down to reveal the human's naked form. A rugged chest, with his toned pectoral muscles about to burst; and a _'ahem'_ gigantic 'tool' to boot. Yes, this human is male. He stood up, wrapping his undershirt around his torso, squeezing his arms and shoulders into the near three year old clothing. He grabbed his make-shift headband and pushed his hair out of his face. Picking up a piece of cloth, he wrapped it around his hair at the back, making a short ponytail. He was wearing nothing on the lower part of his body. He silently cursed at the fact he had no clothing on and bent down to grab his khaki pants, which had been torn in various areas.

"_**You're here somewhere aren't you?"**_

The man's eyes widened again. His body stopped bending down as paralysis took over in fear. _That voice_ was sounding closer and closer by the minute. Quickly, he dragged his ripped pants on over his legs, and proceeded to wrap a cloth around his waist to stop them falling. _'I need new clothes...' _he sighed. _'It'll have to do for now...'_ he mentally mused. _'Right now, I need to concentrate on that noise. Whatever it is and where it is coming from. It definitely sounds a lot closer than five minutes ago!'_

He lent over towards the end of the ripped mattress, saturated in a foul smell that smelt a lot like urine. His nose cringed as the strong smell entered his nostrils, causing his throat to almost gag in retaliation. '_Urgh! That mattress takes to piss, literally...' _he thought to himself. He grabbed an object from the sodden wall that had clearly seen better days. Cracks adorned all four walls and a low ceiling didn't help things either. He strapped the object to his back, adjusting it slightly so that he could withdraw it easier. It was his kodachi. The blade was about forty four centimetres in length, along with the hilt which was fifteen centimetres; bringing the total length to fifty nine centimetres, just small enough to not be classed as a long sword. The hilt was elegantly designed in dark red wrappings that extended off the edge of the sword and joined into an object dangling off it. The blade itself was of intriguing design. Normally, a kodachi would be more curved than a wakizashi. However, due to the blade's flat-look and lesser curved design, it looked more like a wakizashi than a standard kodachi. He specifically had it made for him not too long ago, defining the blade's length, weight, and shape.

He then picked up another object, this one even smaller than the last. He twirled what looked like a thin piece of wood in between his fingers at a rapid pace. Suddenly, he caught it in between his thumb and index finger and the piece of wood split in two in the centre. Slowly, he removed the wooden coating and what was revealed was nothing short of amazing. The hilt was covered head to toe in black wrappings. The blade was what stood out the most though; a line of supposed digicode etched into the blade itself. The boy had always wondered how on earth it got there; because he had never noticed it before, up until a few months ago. He tried translating the digicode using the Japanese alphabet of Katakana and Hiragana; as that was what Digicode associated itself with, however this had proved fruitless so far. _'It could be a different language, one that we haven't encountered before. I'll have to ask __**him**__ later when I get the chance'_

He had let his mind wander for the briefest of moments and therefore he hadn't heard the noise until the very last moment...

... _'Snap!'_

The man's mind returned in an instant and he spun around at an incredible pace, with the tantō firmly in his grasp he slashed against thin air. Realising that it was the same noise as before, he reacted on instinct. Retracting his Tantō back into the wooden casing; he then lent towards grabbing his Kodachi which lay across his back. Slightly grasping the hilt, he swung it over his shoulder, elegantly, fluently, yet with enough force to kill at the slightest touch.

He realised that the noise was incredibly close now; it must have been coming from around the corner of the door. Literally seconds away. _'Shit! Now is not the time for my mind to be wondering damn it!'_ he quickly glanced around the dimly-lit room. _'Although, my bed smells a lot like piss...'_ his nose cringed at the smell._ 'Argh, mind is wondering again. Stop it!'_ he mentally screamed.

He lent his body up against the wall, within the shadows; concentrating his whole body on listening for that one quiet, fatal sound...

...

...

...

'_Nothing coming?'_ he thought. _'That's weird. I'm sure that it was mere minutes away...'_

Suddenly, a large head poked itself through the small crack in the door frame. The man up against the wall smirked. He knew how to hide his presence extremely well so that nothing could sense where he would be. The jaws of the head parted and the man heard a very low, yet raspy voice slowly speak. "I **know** you are here... Kage! Now show yourself before I have to _forcefully_ drag you out!" it growled. The man; now known as Kage steadied his kodachi in front of himself. The silhouette of the voice of what looked like a medium-sized dinosaur, shone onto the floor which streamed through the make-shift window which was made of reinforced wood and steel. The culprit sniffed around the room, looking for clues as to where the man could be; but not going as far as the doorway.

The voice angrily growled out in frustration, slamming his clawed fist into the door frame. "Damn it! Where the hell is that bastard? I'll find him... even if it's the last thing I do!" the silhouette moved slightly and faced the other way, looking outside the room.

The man sighed, "Kage? What the hell did that Digimon mean?" he whispered. _'Come to think of it, that Digimon is oddly familiar!'_

Suddenly, his eyes widened in realisation. _'Now's my chance!'_ screamed Kage in excitement.

He steadied his blade once more; grasping the hilt tighter between his hands. He took one step out into the open. His newly made silhouette now shone in the moonlight, only inches behind the monster in front of him. He was ready to strike...

In one swift movement, he arched both his arms backwards and swung with such velocity that it came down even more fast than when it had risen. He didn't expect anything to happen; except to cleave the tough hide of the reptile-like creature and spill its guts out all over the place.

However, quite the opposite happened...

The dino had spun around at the last second and caught the blade between his claws. It was thanks to the dino's acute hearing that had saved it from utter decimation.

Anger was all that radiated from the reptile's dim yellow eyes. It then twisted its right arm backwards, causing the sword the go with it and slip out of the master's hands. The dino then back flipped twice the make more space between it and the human. It flicked the blade into the air and grasped the hilt tightly. Adjusting into an advanced taijutsu stance and steeling the kodachi in front of itself; it spoke.

"Well hello... Takato... Matsuki!" it growled.

...

...

"How do you know my real name?" the man quietly spoke in anxiety; knowing full well not to cross an opponent who knew so much about himself, as well as having his sword to boot.

The dino smirked, "It's obvious to all us Digimon, Takato... or should I call you the Shi no kuroi kage!"

The man's eyes widened once more, now in fear more than anything else. _'Crap that's what it meant before! This Digimon knows too much! Is it a survivor of what happened a year ago?'_ his mind was racing at a million miles a minute, with questions spinning around.

"Oh, what's this?" the Digimon looked a bit perplexed and grabbed an object.

Takato looked up and stared at what the Digimon was looking at. The Digimon had grabbed a hold of his charm at the end of the kodachi and it was now looking at it intently.

The Digimon now had the kodachi up in front of its face, starring at the object constantly.

Takato seized his chance and pounced forward. Before the Digimon could do anything, the sword's hilt was thrust into its face very sharply, promptly knocking it out. The last thing it saw was Takato standing over it. _'Bastard!'_ it thought.

The Digimon slumped to the floor in a crumpled heap, totally knocked out cold.

The man, now known as Takato Matsuki; picked up his kodachi. He then began balancing the blade on one finger, looking intently to see if anything had happened to the intrinsic blade. A small smile crept up onto his face in adoration to the sword itself. With that being said, he tossed the blade up into the air and; grabbing his saya, he calmly caught it inside the light-weight wooden scabbard.

'_I'll need a new one sooner rather than later. This one is getting worn down pretty quickly'_ he mused in his head.

He then looked down at the Digimon on the floor, still out cold from earlier. He smirked, "Stupid 'mon. What were you thinking about trying to go up against me? No one can fight on par with me... well maybe **hi**-"

Takato couldn't finish the last sentence because a foot swept from underneath him and caught his legs, sending him tumbling to the floor. He hit his head first on the hard rocky surface, dazing him slightly.

A figure slowly rose up from the ground and smirked; "Now how'd you like that... Bastard!" the Digimon from before was now towering above him and spat on the floor next to him in retaliation.

All Takato could see was a big blurry image of a reptile-like dinosaur standing over him, blocking out what little light there was already.

The Digimon then walked a few steps towards Takato's body on the ground. It then lifted a foot and slowly put it on top of his arm; slowly squeezing it into the floor. Takato's mouth turned into a grim look, trying to contain his pain within his body. The Digimon, realising that the slow way wasn't working; quickly stamped its foot down on the now floppy arm.

Takato couldn't contain his pain any longer and screamed in anguish, "Fuuuuuuuuck!" he rolled away from the Digimon; grasping his arm in the process, to stop it inflicting anymore pain to his body. The Digimon grinned in success; his razor sharp teeth glistened in the very little moonlight, it then began laughing at the human writhing in pain.

"Ahahaha... this is just too funny! The Shi no kuroi kage... **The** Black Shade of Death is screaming in pain over a near broken arm! Ahaha! It makes me wonder how you coped for 18 months with-"

The Digimon had been abruptly cut off by and swift kick to its left shoulder by the man. "Fuck you Digimon! I don't want to fight you, but I haven't had a good fight in a long time! I need to release some of this pent up anger, so I thing smashing you up will-"

The Digimon shot off; not towards the man, but away from him. Running as fast and as far as its legs would carry it. The reptile then turned around, "I'll finish you off when I get the chance!" it screamed in the distance. The Digimon then turned around once more and silently shot away into the night, hoping to never be seen again.

"-satisfy me?" the man finished his sentence with a gawped look on his face. An actual Digimon had managed to inflict not just damage, but even _pain_ to him. Nothing had been able to do that to him since...

He shook his head, trying his best to get rid of those God-forsaken images that plagued his mind of the past.

The Digimon actually ran off after it had him pinned down, _'What the hell made it run off like that?"_ he thought.

Takato stayed in position for another minute to make sure the reptilian creature had gone for good. He picked himself up off the floor and wiped his body down. "Damn! That was close!" he whispered, flexing his arm to make sure it wasn't broken. "I can't be careless!" he then silently crept out of the door that confided him to the room. He took one look back at the cramped, urine smelling vicinity _'I hope to Kami that this is the last time I see you!'_ He then faced the outside off the room and into a small hallway; with only one door, which was to the right side. He walked slowly towards the door and pushed it ajar and walked into the dark room.

It was a very small bathroom, and when he meant very small, he meant _very_ small. In it were only a toilet basin and the remains of a very old sink. A mirror was hung loosely up on the left wall. He leaned over the sink; or what remained of it, and squeezed one of the rusty taps and turned it. The tap made a squeaking noise and then a small amount of water poured out. Takato caught the water in his palms and threw it all over his face, getting some in his mouth in the process. "Urgh, I needed that" he moaned in satisfaction. He then turned towards the mirror; he glanced at his reflection with what little light there was.

He sighed.

His body was exhausted from earlier, not getting enough sleep and being woken up by that Digimon didn't help things either. He sat down on the toilet seat and leaned his head towards the mirror. It collided into the cool glass with a gentle thud.

He sighed once more.

He then raised his left arm and suddenly smashed it against the mirror; shattering it into a dozen pieces. Blood slowly dripped from a few cuts on his knuckles from the said action. _'I need to get my head sorted out!'_ he mentally moaned, his mind reminiscing about the past couple of years and some certain memories. _'__**NO!**__ Don't think of __**them! Definitely not them!**__'_ he screamed in his mind; trying his best efforts to block out the vivid images that haunted his head from not so long ago.

Suddenly, his eyes gleamed in a not so friendly way.

And with that, he jumped up in anticipation. Realising something was amiss he glanced all around the room and then towards the floor. He grinned menacingly as the realisation clicked. Baring his teeth into a smirk as the excitement coursed through his body. He withdrew his Tantō from its wooden case, grasping the black wrappings adorned on the hilt of the small blade.

In the reflection of the mirror the man's eyes emitted excitement; like a predator searching for its prey.

He cackled, "_Stupid mon! I'm coming to get you!_"

* * *

"Damn!" the creature cursed, its breathing laboured.

*pant pant* "Gotta move, before he tracks my scent!" it moaned.

Currently, the same mysterious reptile-like creature from before was running through the western most area of the Southern Quadrant like its life depended on it... _'If he finds me before I reach the border, then I'm a dead 'Mon'_ he screamed inside his head.

Suddenly, a faint sign of killer intent leaked its way towards the runaway creature. The Digimon could feel the sensation getting closer and closer at a rapid pace. "Crap! He is fast!" the creature rounded the corner of a nearby building and flattened itself up against the wall, its breathing still laboured. The reptile's body blended in with the darkness of the blackened, rusty metallic texture. The night sky also helped the creature, in the fact that the use of the dark shadows helped it to all most become completely camouflaged. The Digimon prayed inside his head, _'Please Kami-sama, Oh Kami please don't let him notice my presence!'_ his mental voice all most at breaking point.

Suddenly, the killer intent was soon washed away into nothingness. The Digimon poked its head from around the corner. Not noticing any presence nearby it breathed a sigh of relief, "Phew! That was close!" it whispered into the night sky as it withdrew its head from around the corner.

The Digimon rounded himself towards its getaway route, which was only another half a mile to go. It could just spy the exit from a distance; the Western Plains 50ft border.

"_Nearly there. Just gotta make sure he doesn't see-_" the reptile was abruptly cut off from its train of thought, when the creature felt the cool, curved, metal blade, of a small tantō up against its throat, just grazing it ever so slightly to draw a small drop of blood.

'_Shit!'_ the creature thought, '_He's found me, I'm a dead mon!'_ the Digimon quivered at the thought. The man was hanging from the old wooden beam of the window frame above the creature; adjusting his legs, he was hanging upside down. He had poised the small Japanese blade at the dinosaur's throat and he cackled evilly at the despair of his prey as he knew it could not escape his 'sleeper hold'. He had his tantō in his left hand and his left arm was wrapped around the dinosaur's neck and chin with his right arm resting on its forehead. The man tilted the Digimon's head back ever so slightly, so that his blade could get the desired slash it needed. Takato was sure glad he acted in enough time; "Hehe! Now that you're trapped, what are you going to do now?" he then spat on the ground, close to its feet, "Digimon!" he snarled, pressing the blade tighter against the reptilian creature.

The Digimon gargled, "H-Hey Ta-Tak-a-to. H-how's it g-go-ing?" it stuttered, the slice from earlier made its throat cough up blood. The small blade tightened even more. "Shut Up! You can't ask me 'how's it going!" he smirked, "Not in your position anyway" he cackled gleefully. He glanced once over at the Digimon, to see how it was coping in the situation that it was in.

"Hn!" the Digimon snorted in disgust, appalled at the fact it got caught so easily. "You think you have me; don't you Takato?" The man known as Takato stopped his laughing at once to listen to what the Digimon had to say. He then burst into more fits of laugher, "Ahaha! What do you mean **I think;** I **know** I have you, Digimon!" he laughed insanely.

"Not really..." murmured the Digimon, and with that being said, the Digimon delivered a crushing upper elbow drop to the man's abdominal region; "GAH!" *cough cough*. The man suddenly let go of the Digimon; he heaved his bile and saliva onto the floor from the crushing blow to his stomach. The Digimon seized this opportunity and crashed a right hook into the man's face; which sent him whirling away to the ground.

The Digimon spied the surrounding area and noticed its exit route out of there. With the adrenaline running through its body at such a ferocious pace, the reptile could not sense an opportunity to escape without confronting the man once again.

'_Grr; I've gotta fight him!'_ the Digimon moaned mentally.

The man stumbled upon to his two feet, and slipped into a scrappy taijutsu stance. "Urgh! That was a lucky blow!" he spat upon the ground, "Bastard!" His frown sprung into a grin, "Heh! Guess you realised that you **gotta** fight me!" the man noticed the Digimon looking for a means to escape.

The Digimon snorted, "Bring it... you worthless piece of shit!" the creature declared, and slotted into an advanced jujitsu stance.

They both glared at each other for what seemed a lifetime; a soft breeze whistled over them, which caused the sand dunes to pick up in power quite quickly.

Suddenly... with a flash; the two bodies hurtled towards each other, one with his arms tensed and curled up ready to strike with as much force as possible; while the other one had his arms relaxed and open palms ready to deflect and counter anything that came his way.

Takato launched a roundhouse kick towards the Digimon's head. The creature suddenly spun on the balls of its feet and blocked the incoming strike with its right arm. It then followed through with a left uppercut towards the right side of the man's torso...

The blow connected a sickening sound of bones becoming strained and then breaking under the amount of pressure they were put under. Warm blood cascaded from the gaping hole in his side; the flesh had been torn away, the bones seemingly crushed and now penetrated the outside of the man's body. "Gah! Shit!" Takato gasped and clutched his bloody torso with his left hand to stem the bleeding, while still fending off the Digimon with his right.

The Digimon then sent a right-side roundhouse kick towards the man's head. Takato had just about managed to block the incoming limb with his right arm; parrying the strike off to the side. He then released his left arm from his bleeding torso and quickly followed through with a lightning one-two punch to the Digimon's right shoulder and a point-blank smash into its head.

The Digimon was sent flying back and smashed into the side of one of the remote buildings that was near them. "Oof!" the creature landed awkwardly on its left arm, feeling the pressure on the bone intensify, the reptile relaxed its body and let the arm snap clean in two just above the elbow joint.

They both took a couple of steps forward to rebalance themselves and to prepare for the next wave of attacks. The man smirked, "What are we gonna do now? I have a couple of broken ribs and you have a broken left arm! Now then..." he said in a menacing tone, "Let's finish this!" The Digimon growled, and then nodded.

Suddenly, they both jumped on the back foot and shot forward at tremendous speeds towards each other. With one swift arc of their arms, they connected and smashed both of their faces together. Both of the bodies dropped to the floor, soaked in blood and sweat. The two bodies could be heard groaning in pain.

The Digimon was the first to speak, "You fight well... Takato Matsuki!" it panted. The man craned his neck around to face the Digimon. His face cracked into a smile, "You also fight well... BlackGuilmon!" The man chuckled slightly which caused some droplets of blood to seep out of his closed mouth. He could feel the darkness taking over him ever so slowly. "I'll see you on the other side..." his eyes begun to roll to the back of his head. He could just about make out the black dinosaur Digimon nod its head, acknowledging him. He felt himself smile one last time before fading into the darkness...

The two motionless bodies lay on the rough terrain; the wind was howling and was causing the dunes to roll over in the distance.

The following morning, neither body could be seen!

* * *

**CHAPTER 2 COMPLETED**

* * *

Shi no kuroi kage – black shade of death

Saya – Japanese term for scabbard

Kage - Shadow


	3. The Morning After

**AN: Oh... My... GOD! How long has it been? Erm, 3 or 4 weeks?**

***SMACK!***

**Renamon: No you dolt, its 7 weeks today since you last updated; and the FIRST day of 2011!**

**AltairN: Owww! That actually hurt! *Rubs face* Oh right, well I apologise for my rude behaviour regarding my story. I know I haven't updated in soooooo long, but I needed to think about my studies before anything else. I struggled getting back home due to the awful British weather during these past couple of weeks. Finally now that Christmas has come and gone and New Year is upon us; I thought I'd treat everyone with a FIRST DAY update of 2011 :)**

**Takato: I should hope that you are more dedicated in your writing skills now that you have had time to think it over these past weeks.**

**AltairN: Ahhh! Where did you come from?**

**Renamon: It seems even the author has little to no control over who enters his story.**

**Takato: Altair, I came through an object called the door. You know, when it opens and closes on hinges...**

**AltairN: Shut up! Right now on with the story... AND HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011 TO EVERYONE! :D**

***Disclaimer***

**Takato: In no way shape or form does AltairN own Digimon. Cause if he did, I'd be a lot cooler ;)**

* * *

**EXTRA**

**AltairN: I wanted to flesh out the chapters a bit more, because when I first released this, I had chapters 1 through to 6 already completed. But I knew there were some errors (like chapter 2, 3, 4, and 5 all below my mark set for how many words per chapter) and also the amount of swearing (which I have thankfully toned down a lot). This story is an M-rated fic so I apologise for Cyberdramon's mouth in this chapter and expect some mild language and other various acts of maturity later in the story.**

* * *

As the sun rose peacefully over the horizon; shining its radiant light down upon the surface of the Western Quadrant of the Digital World, all was quiet. A small village near the borders of the Southern Quadrant was pleasantly quiet and not a single noise was heard as dawn broke...

"Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!" a loud noise echoed around the landscape, disturbing the peacefulness that was the morning. "WILL YOU STOP DOING THAT EVERYTIME YOU WAKE UP? YOU GOD DAMN SLOTH!" a feminine voice suddenly screeched out disturbing everything that wasn't awoken by the loud yawning of one small dog-bunny Digimon.

"Well, excuse me for enjoying my sleep last night!" the dog-bunny Digimon, known as Terriermon, shot back. The female suddenly came into view of the bunny Digimon; she was at least 3 feet taller than him, had yellow-golden fur covering most of her body, with two purple coloured arm guards strapped onto her. This was Renamon, the kitsune Digimon. She pointed a finger **(AN: claw, anyone?)** at Terriermon, "Well, you obviously didn't hear what happened around 2 this morning! Did you?" she bellowed at the cream coloured Digimon.

Terriermon's face lit up, "Why? What happened? I must have slept through it!" he sounded confused. Renamon sighed, "Well, clearly you **did** sleep through it all last night..."

"What the heck happened?" shouted Terriermon in anger at the fact he was ignored.

"Quiet, I'm trying to think how to best put this!" Renamon snapped. "I might as well just put it to you straight!" she smirked. "**Those two** were out again last night!" Terriermon's eyes widened, "Awwwww man! Does that mean we have to go and find them, fix them up, and clean up the damage they've done... again?" he moaned.

Renamon smiled, "You got that right! I was afraid that your miniscule amount of common sense would have disappeared by now..." she walked off, not waiting for Terriermon to catch up. "Wha... HEY, I only just got that! Come back here!" he yelled, running off to find and catch up with the fox-like Digimon. He could hear his foxy companion chuckle at the sight she just put him in. He then launched himself into the air, and begun to use his ears as wings.

Renamon glanced back at the bunny Digimon, noticing that he was now at head height, "You've grown really accustomed to that haven't you?" Terriermon smiled, "Yeh, it saves me working my small legs..." Renamon chuckled at that. "...and I can get to places faster too!" Renamon snapped her head back around...

Facing in front of the two Digimon was three other Digimon they knew... the looks on their faces signalled that of worry. Renamon's face dropped; the lion Digimon known as Leomon was standing next to two others. One was an identical copy of Terriermon, except that this one wasn't as lazy and didn't moan every five seconds. Of course this one was a female, with a slight dark purple tinge to her body, and three small horn looking objects sticking out the top of her head. She was known as Lopmon. The other Digimon floating next to them looked like a small pixie with wings on the back of its body. This was of course another female, and with a heart shape in the middle of her body. She was known as Marineangemon.

Leomon was the first to speak. "Cyberdramon and Guardromon are already there trying to find them. Unfortunately, no success so far!" he looked on at Renamon and Terriermon's facial expressions. Terriermon spoke up "What you mean... trying to find them?" Lopmon sighed, "He's saying that when they were both fighting last night, they could obviously hear the noise, because we've heard them before. But when they went to investigate about an hour ago, they couldn't see anything... apart from a ton of sand that was blown in from the Western Plains!"

Renamon's paw clicked, "Where are they now?" she asked. "Erm... right where we left them; on the border between the Western Plains and the village!" responded Marineangemon. "They must be buried underneath all that sand that was blown in last night! Damn!" Renamon cursed. She looked up at everyone, "Come on let's move, so we can help Cyberdramon and Guardromon!" she exclaimed. "Yes?" she stopped and waited for an answer from the other Digimon.

"OK!" they replied. Leomon, Marineangemon and Lopmon were in the lead with Renamon right behind them. Terriermon still hadn't moved from his place. He blinked...

"Oi! Wait for me!" he yelled, using his long ears to propel him through the air once again. He caught up with the rest within five minutes. He glanced down towards were the rest of the Digimon were. He shouted down towards them, "And anyway, it's like the sixth time this month, can't they just stop it once in a while..." not at all please as to what his friends had done... again.

Leomon sighed, "Doesn't he realise that by now all Takato and BlackGuilmon do together is put each other on death's door!" He looked up at the cream coloured bunny Digimon, "See anything?" he cried.

"I heard that!" the bunny Digimon shouted back towards the lion.

Terriermon looked down to see what the lion Digimon wanted. He nodded when he heard Leomon; he moved his head back up and began scanning around the area with his eyes. He could just about spy the beginning of the Western Plains over the 50 foot wall that surrounded the eastern side. It stretched out as far as the eye could see, with some pillars situated on the wall as outposts. Some 50 miles into the desert lay end of the Southern Quadrant. Terriermon shuddered at the thought if Takato and BlackGuilmon fought too close to the edge.

Now back to the task in hand... he couldn't really see anything, except he could just about spy some very deepen dug holes in the sandy dunes.

"Hey! I see holes... and quite a lot of them!" he yelled back down to the group.

Renamon heard what Terriermon had said before anyone else; "Holes? A lot?" It suddenly clicked in her mind. "They're digging for them!" she looked up at Terriermon, "How many holes would you say there are Terriermon?" she asked quickly, wanting to help her friends out as best she could. _'You regard __**him**__ more than a friend though, don't you?'_ a small voice echoed in the back of her mind.

Terriermon heard Renamon's question and quickly scanned the outskirts of where the village wall met the Western Plains. His eyes widened considerably when he noticed quite a large number of holes in the ground. "I'd say at least a couple hundred, maybe more!" he replied back.

Renamon's eyes widened, "A **couple hundred**?" she repeated in shock to the other Digimon. They gasped. "Either Cyberdramon is a fast digger or they've been down there for longer than we think!" Leomon suspected.

"Anyways, come on. Let's move!" exclaimed Renamon.

And with that, the five Digimon sped off towards the Western Plains.

* * *

The sandy dunes known as The Western Plains was never a good think to come across. Many Desert Storms passed throughout the day and night; causing havoc across the nearby outpost villages that was situated on the border of the desert. It was such a rarity that there were no desert storms on this one day. It could have been balancing the force of nature back to normal, due to the catastrophic 'Digital Storm' that hit late the night before. Last night had clearly been one of the worst 'Digital Storms' in over two years; it measured about 7.6 on the Richter scale, every Digimon within 1,000 miles were affected with the aftershock of the storm, thankfully no one was injured. The dunes decided to keep within its boundaries this time; for what reason nobody knew.

In the sandy dunes of the Western Plains were two Digimon, one was a Cyborg Digimon with special eraser-made armour. The Digimon was also part of the legendary Dragon man linage, thought to be long lost. He always was very feral towards friends and foes alike. This Digimon was more commonly known as Cyberdramon. The other Digimon that was with him had a solid iron armour body with a tint of bronze. He also had two rocket jets strapped to either shoulder that joined onto his back. This Digimon was known as Guardromon. The Western Plains was now covered in a multitude of huge holes that stretched down as far as 100 feet.

"Can you see them down there?" yelled Guardromon. Silence... then... "I can't see what the fuck is in front of me, never mind anything else!" a voice screamed up towards him. "How far down are you?" Guardromon shouted back. Nothing...

"I'd say about 80 feet! *cough cough* Has Leomon gone to get the rest of them?" he screamed once more. "Yes he has! They should be here soon!" Guardromon bellowed back. Silence once again resumed... "How long is soon? I'm getting pissed off down here!" Cyberdramon yelled. Guardromon sighed, "I don't know! He left about twenty minutes ago, so I'm guessing about another ten to fifteen minutes!"

...**Tumbleweed rolls across the desert**

"DAMN!" screamed Cyberdramon.

"What's up?" shouted Guardromon who was alerted to the sudden noise down below.

"NOTHING!" a very infuriated Cyberdramon shouted back.

"It didn't sound like nothing!" Guardromon replied back to the Cyborg Digimon.

"SHUT UP!" Cyberdramon was clearly pissed off now.

"What's up?" Guardromon asked again.

"I...I STUBBED MY FOOT... THERE YOU FUCKING HAPPY NOW?" Cyberdramon yelled, infuriated that he caved in too easily and told his fellow Digimon what his problem was.

Guardromon listened for a moment; until... "WAAAHAAAAAH! THE ALMIGHTY CYBERDRAMON, WHO IS FEARED BY PROBABLY EVERY DIGIMON IN THE SOUTHERN QUADRANT, IS MOANING BECAUSE HE **STUBBED HIS FOOT**! HAAAAAHAAAAAHAAAAH!" Guardromon collapsed onto the desert sand and began laughing hysterically.

"IT AIN'T FUCKING FUNNY! ASSHOLE!" Cyberdramon threw his head back and his voice echoed upwards and out of the 80 or so feet hole. He turned back towards what he _stubbed_ his foot on. He got on his knees and began feeling around his left foot to find the object he hit it on.

Suddenly, he felt something that was most definitely _**not**_ rock and sediments. He began to dig a bit further towards the weird object that felt different. He finally dug some more and revealed a bit more of the object. He felt it once again... he gasped, it was something soft and squishy on the outside, but really hard in the centre. It almost felt like an arm... "SHIT!" he screamed.

Guardromon up top heard Cyberdramon scream once again. He sighed, "What's up now?" he yelled down the hole.

Just as soon after Guardromon shouted back down the hole, Cyberdramon replied. "I'VE FOUND SOMETHING! FEELS LIKE AN ARM!" he screamed once more. "HANG ON A MINUTE!"

Guardromon froze; he didn't hear that right did he... Cyberdramon has just found an object and it could be an arm?

"Are you sure it's definitely an arm?" he shouted back down the hole.

"HANG ONE FUCKING MINUTE!" Cyberdramon screamed back up the hole clearly irritated.

Cyberdramon had dug out more and more rocks as well as some solidified sand. Suddenly, he heard movement, and _groaning_? He dug out some more... he gasped. There in front of him he felt what he thought was a body of a human. He could smell that the body was covered in dry blood and dirt all over. What surprised Cyberdramon the most was that when he was feeling around; he could sense that the boy was covering another body of some sorts. Cyberdramon dug further downwards, past the 90 feet mark, to see if he could get a feel of this other body. Bearing in mind that he could not see at all and had to rely of touch alone, he had to be very careful. He suddenly grasped something that definitely was not rock _**or**_ human shaped. This object had a very rough feel to it and felt increasingly thicker than the last one. Cyberdramon began to feel down towards what he thought was the end of the arm... he was right. He came across the beginning of the hand itself. Cyberdramon felt the hand a bit more; he could feel that this hand also had dry blood on it, though not humans most probably its own. He felt the fingertips... they were oddly familiar, almost shaped like... _'Claws'_... "Guilmon?" he whispered. Realisation hit him; he didn't know how long these two had been down here. "GUARDROMON?" he screamed back up the hole towards the surface.

* * *

Guardromon heard Cyberdramon scream once again, he sighed. "What is it now, Cyberdramon?" he yelled back down the hole. _'Jeez, my throat is gonna die soon!'_ he moaned to himself. Cyberdramon's voice snapped him out of his daze. "I BLOODY FOUND THEM!" he screamed back up the hole, with huge relief clearly coming from his vocal chords. Realisation hit Guardromon like a ton of bricks, "How long have they been down there?"

"HOW THE FUCK DO I KNOW! ANYWAY, WHERE ARE THE OTHERS? WE NEED THEM NOW!" he bellowed upwards out of the hole. He sounded very pissed off. Guardromon sweat dropped, _'Yeah, he hasn't changed at all! Still shifting emotions like no tomorrow!'_

Guardromon looked out across the desert wasteland, sensing no presence of any Digimon nearby.

"I can't see anyone within the distance my sensing abilities go!" he yelled back down in the hole at Cyberdramon.

"GOD DAMN IT!" Cyberdramon cursed; annoyed that the rest of the Digimon had not turned up yet.

* * *

Renamon was in the lead of the group of Digimon, all running at full speed to the border of the Western Plains. Lopmon and Marineangemon were on Leomon's shoulders; with Terriermon up in the air acting as the lookout. They were only a couple of miles away from the border, and Terriermon could sense that they were getting close. "I... I can see something, or someone!" His eyes squinted together for him to see if he could identify them better. He gasped, "It's Guardromon!" he yelled with joy.

Leomon smiled, "Finally, we're getting somewhere! Let's move!" he signalled to Renamon. She nodded, "Right, _**flash step**_!" one moment she was there, the next moment she was gone. Terriermon looked below, "Heh, she's finally used her _**flash step**_. Not seen that in a while, ever since..." he trailed off, not wanting to remember the last time she had to use it. '_Guilmon, buddy I hope you're alright. Last time was bad enough; I don't know how she would react if you were too...'_ he thought solemnly.

* * *

Renamon had begun her _**flash step**_ towards the direction that Terriermon and Leomon had pointed to. She could just about sense Guardromon's presence up ahead. '_About another mile... come on body move!'_ she screamed her body to move quicker and she started to push her _**flash stepping**_ to the maximum. Before she was just an extreme yellow blur, but now she was just like a powerful force of wind, moving the leaves surrounding her; flailing in her wake.

* * *

Guardromon looked across the desert, he was sure he had just sensed a presence that was _very_ close; under a mile in fact. '_What the hell is that thing?'_ he thought to himself. _'It's coming in extremely fast; I can just about make it out... a yellow blur?'_ Guardromon looked confused.

"HEY Cyberdramon! We've got company! I suggest you get up here now!" he yelled back down the 95 foot hole.

Cyberdramon heard Guardromon up top, "You dolt! That's Renamon, she's using her _**flash step**_ don't you remember it?" he screamed with frustration. His sensing abilities might not be as good as Guardromon's, but at least he could sense **who** they were.

Guardromon heard what Cyberdramon had said to him before turning back around to look and see if he could still sense the '_mysterious thing' _that was now identified as Renamon. He did not expect her to be stood directly in front of him, only metres from his face. "Ahhh!" he let out a high pitched scream and jumped about a foot in to the air.

Renamon looked exhausted, with beads of sweat rolling down her face; much less her body. She spoke to Guardromon, "W...Where a...are t...th...ey?" she gasped out. Guardromon could tell that she was extremely worried for her fellow Digimon and Tamer, but he also noticed that she was on the verge of collapsing into unconsciousness. Guardromon pointed towards the hole that Cyberdramon was currently occupying; "Down there" he replied. Before Renamon could move her very worn-out body, Guardromon spoke again. "Don't even think about going down there! Cyberdramon is doing perfectly well down..."

"I FUCKING AIN'T MAN! COME ON WHERE ARE THEY?" he screamed out in frustration. Guardromon jumped back, slightly taken aback. He yelled back down the hole, "Well Renamon's the only one that's here, and she used _**flash step**_ to get her body here as fast as she could!"

Before anyone spoke again, Renamon launched her body down the 96 foot hole towards where Cyberdramon was.

* * *

All was silent for Cyberdramon until he heard a slight whistle noise. To him it sounded like an object moving at an increased pace, with the wind accelerating around it. Suddenly, a light _thud_ echoed around him. He spun around, only to meet face to face with an exhausted-looking Renamon. "H..how is h..he?" she wheezed. Cyberdramon turned back around towards where the human and Digimon were embedded in the rock. He sighed, "Not looking good Renamon. Both their vital signs are reacting normal, just a bit erratic on the odd occasion, probably from last night's carnage bomb!"

"Can we get them out?" she asked, fear just edging into her voice. "Yeh... but only one!" Renamon gasped, he continued "Guilmon is obviously the easiest and most manoeuvrable at the moment. If we move Takato, then the whole cave will turn in on us!" he exclaimed.

Renamon moved towards were she could sense Takato and BlackGuilmon, "Well then let's not waste anymore time!" she bent down to grab BlackGuilmon's fragile beaten body out from underneath Takato, who was rammed into the solidified sand particles that was known as the cave wall.

Renamon slowly peeled BlackGuilmon's stricken body away from the stone wall. The whole cave walls began to shake ever so slightly with the object now partly removed from its original position. She managed to hoist him over her shoulder; his weight slightly crippling her own body down towards the floor.

"I don't know how you can carry that big lug! I mean even me and Leomon struggle with him!" Renamon chuckled, "Wouldn't you like to know..." Cyberdramon looked at her, he was pretty concerned about her, and with using **flash step** to get here was no mean feat. "Are you sure you're gonna be alright with carrying him?" asked Cyberdramon, who looked on at Renamon. He noticed that her breathing had started to become more laboured. "I'll... be fine!" she panted.

"You are not fine!"

Renamon's eyes widened at the voice. She spun around with BlackGuilmon still on her back and looked towards the wall. There still embedded in the wall, was none other than Takato Matsuki... talking! You could only see the left part of his face. His one eye was open and his head was slightly inclining towards the three Digimon. Blood was seeping out of his mouth at a slow yet steady pace; there was dry blood, most probably from earlier, around his lower jaw. He began coughing a couple of times, and more blood spewed down his lips and onto the floor of the hole. Cyberdramon just stood there, speechless and wide eyed, unable to utter the faintest of sounds.

Renamon fell to her knees, in shock from her friend, a mere human, half hanging out of a solidified sand wall. She moved her eyes up so that she could look at Takato, "Takato are you...?" Renamon began.

"Get out now! I can feel the walls caving! Get going, get BlackGuilmon out now!" he spoke in a quiet yet firm voice. Renamon was pretty shocked that Takato had referred to BlackGuilmon's proper name. She looked at Cyberdramon, "I thought you said that it would only cave in if we took Takato, not Guilmon!" she growled. He turned around to face her, "How was I supposed to know?" he grilled back at her. "Less chat or you'll be splat! Now get out of here!" Takato yelled back at the two Digimon, blood still gurgling out of his mouth. Cyberdramon nodded, and with one swift movement, he wrapped Renamon onto his back, and BlackGuilmon was moved onto the front in his arms. Renamon was wide-eyed; "Are you nuts? You can't carry us both out, Guilmon alone is heavier than you are!" she exclaimed. Cyberdramon looked at Takato's half body encased in the rocky wall, "Do it!" he whispered. Cyberdramon nodded, his claws began to glow a fiery colour, and Takato could literally feel the heat that was being generated off them. Within seconds the glow turned into a full flame, both blasting out of his claws. Renamon gasped, she knew what this was, and couldn't believe that Cyberdramon was going to do it in a situation like this. Before she could open her mouth however... _**"DESOLATION CLAW!"**_ screamed Cyberdramon. With an almighty roar that sounded like a screaming jet engine; Cyberdramon rammed his arms into to ground below himself. The impact sent shockwaves throughout the hole in the ground; Takato could feel the walls beginning to crush him. Cyberdramon tried to look around in the darkness of the cave, but to no avail. Then a sudden jolt knocked them off their feet, Cyberdramon could just about see Takato being engulfed by the cave wall. Takato looked across at Cyberdramon; "Again!" was all he said.

Before Cyberdramon could even begin to create his second _Desolation Claw_, he felt the rumbling get louder. The rocks started to crack under the intense pressure that the first shock sent through the hole. The low rumbling began to get louder with each second, causing Renamon to twist her neck towards where Takato was embedded. He noticed Renamon looking at him out of the corner of his eye. His mouth twitched into a small smile, "Go!"

Cyberdramon looked up at the exit once again... and the rocks began to fall.

* * *

**Chapter 3 Completed**


	4. The Escape And Highschool Problems

**AltairN: I apologise for the incredibly long wait. I have no excuses for not updating regularly; I just haven't had the time lately. It's also not looking good for future chapters either, as I will be working continuously for the few weeks or so. *sigh***

**I have managed to just about squeeze out this chapter. It may be a bit rough around the edges, so please let me know via constructive criticism on what I need to improve and where (in any of the chapters).**

**I am hoping I can try and squeeze out chapter 5 before I go back to work in 3 days, but unfortunately, you can't hold me to that...**

**AltairN: Guilmon, do the honours...**

**Guilmon: What about ages...?**

**AltairN: Oh yes right, I keep forgetting...**

**Guilmon: Yeh, like you keep forgetting to update you story regularly!**

**AltairN: Shut Up! I'm hoping to be a little bit more consistent now! Now where was I, oh yeh, AGES! Here they are listed below...**

**CURRENT**

**Takato Matsuki: 15, Rika Nonaka: 15, Henry Wong: 15, Kazu Shioda: 15**

**Kenta Kitagawa: 15, Jeri Katou: 15, Ryo Akiyama: 16, Suzie Wong: 12**

**AltairN: There are all the ages so far. There will be more added later and throughout as the story progresses.**

**NOW can you do the Disclaimer...**

**Guilmon: *sigh* FINE! This is an official Disclaimer; AltairN does not and will never own any significant part of Digimon! If he did, he wouldn't have made Digimon Data Squad (Or Savers, or whatever else it's called).**

* * *

With the swiftness of an elite-trained martial artist, Cyberdramon began to side-step the falling rocks. Due to him having Renamon on his back and _trying_ to keep a hold of BlackGuilmon in his arms at the front, he couldn't execute his dodge-roll manoeuvre. He could barely hold BlackGuilmon up; sometimes his was resorted to dragging the poor reptilian Digimon along the cave floor, the rocks falling millimetres from where his head was seconds before.

Takato was being encased more and more into the wall of the hole. Most of the rocks where missing him cleanly, due to him being part of the wall itself however, some rocks did manage to glance at his partly visible head as well as his left arm that was hanging limply by his side, causing more cuts and bruises to create across his body.

He could see that Cyberdramon was trying his utmost hardest to dodge the falling debris with Renamon and BlackGuilmon even though he was being dragged along on his head. "Drop Guilmon and go!" he shouted over the noise of the falling stone. "You're bloody insane! I ain't doing that! We've come this far already, we are not giving up now!" Cyberdramon yelled back, his body still dodging the falling debris.

"I... said... GO!" Takato screamed; his vocal chords on the verge of breaking point, blood spewing out of his mouth as he shouted; the vile copper taste completely filling his mouth. He spat some more blood out of his mouth. "You and Renamon are seriously hurt down here. Guardromon can't come down here, because he is not agile enough, and the rest of them haven't turned up yet!"

"But what was the point in coming down here in the first place? WHOA!" yelled Cyberdramon, who had to dodge an extremely large rock coming his way. He spun back around to face Takato, whose body was fading out of sight very quickly. "For Christ's sake Cyberdramon! Now is... not... the... tiiiiiime... GO!" his voice was being stretched to the limit. His body was being crushed against the solid rocks forming a new layer of stone in front of his very eyes. Takato's eyes widened at that point realising that he probably wouldn't make it out of this alive... he wouldn't, but he'd make sure Guilmon did.

"JEEZUS CHRIST! ALL THAT FUCKING WORK FOR NOTHING!" screamed Cyberdramon in frustration, pounding his left arm against the wall of solidified sand and stone. He looked up towards the surface of the hole they were in and amidst the falling rocks he noticed a huge boulder; a lot bigger than the rest smashing others out of its way flying towards them, aiming to come straight down on top of them...

"DESOLATION CLAW!" he screamed manically, charging his right arm up after letting go of BlackGuilmon. He thrust his arm up at a ferocious pace at the oncoming boulder. The collision between the fiery fist of the Digimon and the colossus piece of rock was earth-shattering, with new, unforeseen cracks appearing in the walls due to the inhumane vibrations of the attack meeting the object. Takato, who was within the wall itself, felt himself moving about within the solidified rock. Thankfully, Cyberdramon came out on top, with the boulder being obliterated into thousands of tiny pieces which scattered the floor of the hole.

Cyberdramon immediately stopped his attack, realising the situation that he and Renamon were in. He knew that the hole wouldn't be able to support itself if another attack of that magnitude was created. He cursed to himself silently in frustration knowing that he wouldn't be able to get BlackGuilmon out of the hole without some sort of damage done to either himself or Renamon; and he knew that she was in no fit state to even move, much less get any more damage done to her body. Cyberdramon had to quickly readjust Renamon on his back so that she would be more comfortable and wouldn't get hit by any of the falling debris when proceeding back up the hole. He quickly _threw_ BlackGuilmon over towards the wall near Takato.

"Sorry buddy" Cyberdramon sadly spoke in frustration.

Takato, who was still only hanging onto being able to see out of the wall, managed to grasp hold of BlackGuilmon with his limp left arm; and he hoisted him closer towards him so that the falling debris wouldn't hurt him as much. He turned back to Cyberdramon, who was adjusting Renamon _again_, but this time onto his front.

"We'll come and get you back, once the rest of them get here. It shouldn't be too long now!" With that being said, both Digimon flew upwards towards the surface; Cyberdramon carrying Renamon, dodging the flying debris as they went. Takato adjusted his head slightly, so that he could see them flying upwards towards the distant pinprick of light. The rocks began to block his vision; Cyberdramon was just a little dot in the light now. _'Must be early hours of the morning now...'_ he thought as the light at the top was becoming intensely bright. Takato adjusted BlackGuilmon even more, standing him up and bringing him closer to his head level.

He looked up once again, the small pinprick known as Cyberdramon was no-one to be seen now. The hole of light was getting increasingly small... a stray rock smacked onto Takato's head, issuing a lot of blood cascading out of his head. He could feel his eyes beginning to roll to the back of his head from the shock. He thought he heard a loud, but distant voice in the background... _'Heh, bet that's Cyberdramon. Always yelling like that! Better get used to this cave, after all..._' Another rock smashed into his left arm, he lost his grip on BlackGuilmon, who fell to the floor in a crumpled heap. Takato could feel his head slipping the world... he slumped forward and knew no more.

* * *

Cyberdramon was launching himself from rock to rock, sometimes using the newly-formed holes in the wall for more support. He could spy the light hole getting increasingly bigger now, _'Yes! We're near the top now!'_ "HEY GUYS..." This woke Renamon up from her half-conscious state, "Do you mind Cyberdramon, trying to get some shut eye here!" she groaned. "Ah, sorry 'bout that Renamon! But, we're nearly there!" he grinned.

He hopped the last few rocks until he was just about to get out... "AHH, CRAP!" his left leg had slipped and he could not regain their body weight with only his right one. "WHOOOOAAAA... huh?" he began to scream when something _'or someone'_ had grabbed a hold of his wobbly left leg. He noticed that he wasn't falling now; he strained his neck to get a clearer look at what had got him. "Well, well, well... hey guys look what I fished out of that dry well!" Cyberdramon stiffened, he _knew_ that voice. The head from which the voice came from, peered over the edge of the hole with another four heads also peering around the surface.

"Ummm... hi guys!" Cyberdramon nodded sheepishly. "Hi yourself!" Leomon chuckled. "Hey..." a voice rose up, "I thought you didn't like Renamon _that_ way, Cyberdramon?" Terriermon quizzed.

"Terriermon... SHUT UP!" yelled Lopmon, who promptly wacked him on the back of his head, "Owww, that actually hurt. Geez, girls and their stupid hot-headed tempers..." he muttered. He noticed Lopmon had become very... infuriated? At least he thought that's what she was looking at him like, "Umm... Momentai?" Lopmon growled, "I'll momentai you... you little, ungrateful, sexist IDIOT!" Terriermon turned around to run off as fast as his little legs would carry him, but he realised that something _or someone_ was holding him back. He turned back around and noticed that Lopmon had hold of one of his long ears, "Oww, not the ears!" _*SMACK, THWACK,_ "Oww..."_ POW, THUNK!_* The last noise was of Terriermon's head hitting the ground, out cold.

Guardromon spoke up first, "Thank God you are alright! All I heard before was some distant yelling from down there, and the next minute the whole ground begins to shake. I didn't know what was happening!" he bowed his head solemnly. "Don't worry about it!" Cyberdramon wheezed, "I got Renamon out of there in time!"

"Yeh, but what about Takato and Guilmon?" asked Leomon.

Cyberdramon shook his head, "Guilmon was out cold when I got down there. Even when I moved him; he still wouldn't wake up!" he sighed. "Takato... well let's just say he did more than Guilmon!" Everyone gasped, "Wait... you don't mean..." exclaimed Guardromon.

"Yeh, he was conscious this whole time, and he even spoke to us. But because we moved Guilmon from the incline of the wall, the whole thing started to collapse onto us. Takato screamed for us to get out of there!" Cyberdramon decided to be blunt and tell them the quick and easy version of what happened down the hole he created.

Everyone gasped, "How is he?" asked Lopmon. Cyberdramon shook his head, "Not looking good, his whole body was encased in the wall, except his left arm and part of his face!"

"...And now this cave in! I wonder how his body's coping down there." Guardromon's face turned into a sad facade.

"What's our next point of action then?" asked Leomon. A defined silence followed... "Well... I think we should tend to Renamon first. After all **flash step** is a pretty energy-consuming move; especially moving at that distance!" Guardromon spoke up. Everyone else nodded in agreement. _'I just hope that Takato and Guilmon are all right down there!'_ Cyberdramon mused to himself.

Marineangemon began to use his heart attack move to heal Renamon. She was pretty battered and bruised from using **flash step** over a long period. Guardromon put one arm behind her back and sat her up slightly, he shook his head, "She's going to be out of it for a while..."

"What about 'Angemon's heart attack; is that not speeding up the process?" asked Lopmon. "Pi pipi piii piipiipii!" replied Marineangemon. For once Guardromon had to translate, "She says that her heart attack move will only heal Renamon so much. After that, she has to heal naturally..."

Lopmon spoke up again, "Yeh, I remember that. But remember the incident with Guilmon..." she trailed off, knowing that everyone knew what she was talking about. She put her head down, "I'm sorry. I should not have brought that up..."

"Don't be!"

Everyone looked to where the voice was coming from, "Don't be sorry Lopmon!" Terriermon emphasized. He was sitting up at an awkward angle and his breathing was slightly ragged. "We all know Guilmon can take more damage than a normal rookie, because Takato made him that way. He can withstand anything that anyone throws at him! The main reason I'm saying this is because, Guilmon healed quicker to Marineangemon's heart attack; because his body can regenerate faster than any other Digimon known to our kind. We should already know and understand this due to last time..." he trailed off, trying his best to regain his breath back. A sharp intake of air was followed, and Terriermon continued, "Unlike Renamon, she relies on her speed and finesse to attack. She can become exhausted very easily; her body is not really used to the regeneration process, because she hardly takes damage if any at all. Thus the damage to her body takes longer to heal when using 'Angemon's move!"

Everyone looked at him with a confused look on their faces. Terriermon sweat dropped, "What?"

"Who are you? And what have you done with the real Terriermon?" Cyberdramon spoke up, everyone else nodded. "HEY! Just because I said something intelligent, doesn't mean I'm not me!" he flustered, flinging up his small arms in protest. "Geez, just because I've got a dark sense of humour and I act pretty dense most of the time, does not mean that this is a one off moment!"

"T...Terr..ier..mon's riiiight!"

Everyone turned to face the voice... it was Renamon. _'Talk about being down for a long time... not!'_ Cyberdramon sweat-dropped.

She was forcefully trying to make her body to sit up, "Pipi pipiii piiipiii pi!" squeaked Marineangemon; putting her little body in front of her friend, trying to stop her. Renamon smiled weakly, "I'm al...right 'Ange...mon..."

"Wait a minute... _I'm right?_" Terriermon looked pretty stunned to say the least.

"_He is?_" Lopmon managed to speak, her mouth hung wide open.

Renamon nodded with a grunt. She had managed to sit herself up onto her knees; her paws in front of her supporting the rest of her body.

Everyone watched her struggle with her body, _'Mind over matter, as they call it in the human world...'_ Leomon thought. He contemplated those words a little more, and he started to chuckle. Everyone else noticed that Leomon found something funny.

"Eh? What's so funny Leomon?" asked Guardromon, looking perplexed.

Leomon caught his breath between chuckling. "Don't worry about it. I was just reminiscing a saying that Takato once told me..." his eyes became glazed over as he daydreamed.

"Ooooookay!" Cyberdramon looked at Leomon with a distasteful glare, wondering what on God's name was he going on about.

"Anyway, now that that is sorted; our next matter is rescuing Takato and Guilmon. Um... any ideas?" he asked, hoping that one of them had figured out a plan.

"Unfortunately, no; at least not that I am aware of" spoke Guardromon, looking down at the desert floor they were all currently occupying.

Suddenly, a slow rumble was heard, but quickly disappeared as it had appeared. The Digimon frantically looked around themselves, searching for any noticeable signs of change. "Whoa!" yelled Cyberdramon. "It's happening again!" Everyone else looked around once again, suddenly, the earth shook with tremendous force, and it knocked Leomon off his feet. "Ooof! What in the world..."

Cyberdramon had managed to just about stay on his feet. "It definitely isn't an earthquake... we haven't had one of them in years..." Leomon grunted, "Well... no time like the present, eh?" he snarled. "It almost certainly isn't a **Desert Storm**... I mean, the one we got last night was bad enough..."

"It's none of them!" Terriermon yelled, his voice sounding edgy with a slight amount of fear laced in it. Everyone turned around to listen to what he had to say.

"It's something powerful... more powerful than your regular storm or earthquake! It's..."

Before Terriermon could finish his sentence, the ground shook violently once more. They could see the sand dunes parting ways about 100 feet in front of them all, spraying sand all around. Suddenly, a great beam of exhilarating white light shot out into the sky. All the Digimon covered their eyes from the searing bright light. "Ahhh, what the hell is that?" screamed Leomon.

"DOES IT LOOK LIKE ANY OF US CAN ANSWER THAT QUESTION RIGHT NOW!" screamed Cyberdramon, who was guarding Renamon from the oncoming sand blast and the white light in the sky. He was pretty annoyed that his friend came out with a stupid question like that. _'I mean, alright... I do expect it from Guardromon and Terriermon... but Leomon, what the hell?'_

The white light began to die down, and thus the sand spirals calmed themselves down and slowly eased to a stop. Everyone uncovered their eyes to see what was in, or what caused the bright light. They could see two objects in the distance... about 50 feet in front of themselves...

"Grrrrraaaaaaaaaaaa!" a loud, yet deep throated scream echoed from where the sand spirals where. Everybody froze, not knowing whether that was an enemy or whether it was someone they knew going out of control.

"How's it going guys?" grunted Takato, as he and BlackGuilmon stepped out of the sand.

* * *

'Bbbrrrrriiiiiinnnngggg'

About 30 students jumped for joy when the lunch-time bell of the school day went; except one. She was a brash looking girl, and one look from her, would refrain anyone from going anywhere near her. She carried **that** look that said, _'you come anywhere near me, you're dead!'_ so most people kept away from her. She had violet eyes, a very unique trait in Japan, where most people had brown or blue eyes. Her hair was no different; a redhead in Japan was extremely rare. Her hair was more on the lighter side though, tied into her traditional pineapple ponytail, she had added to her style with a couple of short bangs hanging down either side of her face.

This girl was known as Rika Nonaka; **the former/now turned back Digimon Ice Queen**, sixteen years of age, and was currently attending her final senior year at Shinjuku High.

Rika sighed, looking at her watch her mother got for her when she went to Paris for one of her modelling shoots, about a year ago. Thankfully, it was a digital watch, so it didn't cause Rika too much hassle. The watch read 12:30... 'Great... lunch time!' she thought, a smile slowly etching itself onto her face. She waited until everyone had run out of the classroom before she moved. "Erm... Ms. Nonaka, can I ask you as to why you are still here?" a voice spoke out. Rika blinked and looked forward towards her teacher's desk. She jumped up in shock, "Ah! Sorry about that Mori-sensei!" she replied quickly, with a short bow that followed. "I... I was just recollecting my thoughts, that is all!"

Her teacher; Toshiaki Mori, smiled in acknowledgement, "That is quite all right, Ms. Nonaka. Now run along quickly, before everyone beats you to the food court!" he grinned ecstatically, obviously thinking of the food just waiting for him. Rika nodded, she then spun on her heels and ran out of the classroom; hiding the blush that the fact she got caught. 'Damn it!' she moaned in her head, 'Didn't mean for that to happen!' She then began to walk down the corridor; however, it was not in the direction of the food court. She was in fact heading towards a set of steps that lead upwards; these particular set lead up to the open roof of Shinjuku High.

She quickly glanced behind herself one last time, to make sure that no one was following her; she bounded up the steps towards the open top roof. Silently, she grasped a hold of the door handle and quickly flung herself around the other side, so that she, herself, was now outside. She smiled, 'Great, now for some quality peace and quiet!'

* * *

"LUNCH TIME!" screamed a voice down the corridor. You could tell he was ecstatic at the fact that it was time to eat. He turned back to see where everyone else was, "Come on! Otherwise all the food will be gone!" Slowly, a group of five people came into view, 'Sigh' "When will he ever stop? This is so troublesome" groaned a member of the said group. This member was a sixteen year old boy, from the nearby Kawasaki district in Tokyo. Standing at 6'2', with chocolate brown eyes (that had every girl going for him, mind you); extreme dark brown hair, which stuck out at odd angles, and wearing that 'cool n relax' look as well as his dark clothing. He wore a pair of blue skinny Armani hip-hung jeans, which went way below the ankle, as well as a pair of grey and black Nike Windrunner TR 2's. On his top half, he wore a tight grey, half buttoned t-shirt, which clung to his body like a second skin (we presume that's what the girls want to see). And on top of that, a black New York Hollister hoody, which hung loosely over his frame. This rebel-looking teenager was known as Ryo Akiyama.

The two other males that were walking with him also stood out themselves. These were Henry Wong and Kenta Kitagawa.

Henry had grown considerable over the past three years, shooting up from a measly 5'1' to a decent height of 5'11'. He was wearing a white Nike t-shirt and a dark blue sweater that hung loosely from his hips. On his bottom half, he was wearing a black pair of G-Star Raw bootcut jeans, with a vibrant pair of dark grey and white Adidas Originals Gazelle 2's strapped onto his feet. He still kept hold of his old blue tinted glasses; however he had gone out of his way to purchase a newer more sophisticated pair. A pair of Ray-Ban 3211 in Matte Black hung just above his eyes, resting on his forehead. He wasn't sure whether they were the latest fashion, and to be quite frank he didn't care. He was just glad to have a pair of goggles/glasses adorning his face once more.

Kenta had changed slightly, but not a lot from three years ago. Considering he was pretty short for his age; 4'10' he was the only person to grow at a rapid pace in such a small amount of time. He now stood at 5'11'. His clothing came with a light blue pair of ripped Blue Inc jeans. A white McKenzie t-shirt relatively stitched onto his upper body, along with a North Face jacket slung over his shoulders.

The two girls that where part of the said group were walking with them. These two young women where know as Jeri Katou and Suzie Wong, both having a connection with Henry. Suzie was his younger sister; and Jeri was Henry's girlfriend of two years.

Jeri's wardrobe had constantly changed over the past three years; ranging from the old yellow shirt and green over-dress that she worn three years ago. To completely the opposite, wearing a branded Republic, long sleeved white t-shirt, with a multi-coloured floral skull emblazed on the front of it. The t-shirt just stopped above her stomach area, showing off some of her appealing flesh to any onlookers that happened to be walking by. On her bottom half, she sported a sexy set of slashed leggings in the colour black, with a dark blue Soul Cal mini skirt hanging loosely from her waist. Her accessories that were adorning her body were a set of Miso Enamel & Stone Earrings, hanging from each ear; and also a Pandora bracelet adorned with various charms, loosely clasped around her right wrist.

Suzie Wong was the person that had changed the most over the past three years (if you don't count Takato). She was now aged twelve, beginning her second year in Shinjuku High. She no longer was that 9 year old cry-baby she once was, and had a hard attitude to prove it. Her attire was mainly black, but wouldn't be considered gothic. Her hair was the one thing that had had a drastic makeover from three years ago... she had dyed her hair, much to the distress of both her parents. But Henry backed her up saying that she was her own person now and that she could look after herself. Gone was the old burgundy colour, and in came the extreme colour black, along with dark, yet vibrant red highlights. She sported a black, long sleeved t-shirt emblazed with an upper body of a skeleton with a pair of headphones plugged in, with a multicolour background behind it. Her legs had a pair a jet black twisted jeans, with dark streams of red adorning random areas. She wanted to at least still keep some feminism in her clothing so she went out and bought a white pair of Ugg boots. Apparently, according to the so-called popular girls, these were the latest fashion range, and that everyone was raving about them. She couldn't see the point to be honest. Lastly, a large number of different coloured bangles hung around her left wrist. She also adorned two diamond studded earrings in each of her ears; and what looked to be like an old, rusty gold chain hanging loosely around her neck. No one spoke to her about _**that**_ piece of jewellery, not even the ex-Tamers. They knew where she got it from, but nothing more was mentioned on the topic.

* * *

"**Momentai will yah!"** echoed a voice around them. Everybody in the corridor froze! Most people were wondering what the hell it was, some people didn't care and carried on walking after they stopped to hear it. The small group of five halted. An icy atmosphere was building up around them, mainly from one person. They all slowly turned around... to see one Suzie Wong. She noticed that everyone in the group looking at her, "W...What?" she only managed out of her mouth. "Y...You s...said **t..th..at** w..word!" Kenta opened his mouth to speak, but could only announce a lot of blubbering gibberish, not wanting to look across to the person next to him. He could just about notice that Jeri was trying to calm him down.

"IT WASN'T ME!" she screamed, startling everyone in the corridor. Ryo could see the amount of heads turning in their direction. He decided to act, "Come one people move along. It doesn't concern any of you..." most of the crowd dispersed to the food court, but a few decided to try their luck in staying. "I said... ALL of you!" he put his foot down now, he wasn't happy. Most of the group that remained were lads that detested Ryo especially. "Or what Akiyama... What you gonna d to us? Throw shitty insults at us? Are you actually gonna put up a fight this time...?" Ryo clenched his teeth, he knew they were right, "...Or maybe, you can call for your old friend... hmmm, what was his name again? Ahhh, yeh... Takato Matsuki!" the leader spoke out. His group of minions behind him gasped in fear. They knew not to say that name in front of anyone, yet their leader just came out with it just like that. One of them whispered, "Come on Marcus, let's go!" he tried to urge his friend and their leader to come with them. The leader known as Marcus turned his head to the side slightly, "Fuck no, Omoi! I'm staying right here. If any of you lot want to go, then feel free, I ain't gonna put up with you lot whimpering behind my back!"

Most of his group slowly crept away, not wanting to be in the firing line of what might hit them. Only Omoi, and two others, Kazuki and Chris, stayed behind. Omoi, for the simple matter that Marcus was his friend; the other two... they were there to just really prove their power and strength as the local school bullies. Ryo just stayed rooted to the spot, in front of everyone. He spoke from the corner of his mouth to the rest of the group, "It wasn't Suzie..." Kenta looked up, barely hearing him. "You sure?" he questioned. Ryo nodded in response. Kenta then whispered to Jeri, her eyes lit up in anticipation, and with new re-found vigour, she whispered into her boyfriend's ear.

Henry was shocked... no, confused was more the word. He had heard Terriermon's old phrase loud and clear, _'I was sure that was __**his**__ voice! It came out over the tannoy system; something must be up in the principal's office!'_

"Jen... Henry?" spoke his girlfriend, Jeri. Using his nickname to try and get him to notice her while waving her hands in front of his face. Henry shook his head, "Sorry Jeri, must have spaced out there." Jeri giggled, "You sure did Jen. Now come on before the canteen is out of food!" She turned around and motioned for Suzie to follow her, she nodded in acceptance. Henry glanced across to Kenta, who smiled weakly; "Hey Kenta, sorry about before. I could tell you were a bit off put by my actions!" Kenta chuckled, "It's alright Henry, I should know by now that if any of _their names_ are mentioned it can get pretty... _tense_!" Henry nodded as he understood. "Let's go and get some food now!" he spoke joyously. The group of four began to set off towards the canteen, when suddenly; the dummy duo was blocking their way through.

"You lot are not going anywhere!" boasted one of them. "Well said Chris!" praising his friend. These two were considered the bullies of Shinjuku High; _'they may pack a punch, but then again, they're dumb as fuck!' _Henry suddenly got defensive, and stood in front of his friends.

"OI! I SAID I'M NOT DONE WITH YOU!" screamed a voice right next to them. "Tch, Akiyama what gives?" putting on a mock pout and a hand over his heart in exaggerating fashion. Ryo slammed himself in front of Henry and the rest of the group. "Sorry guys, you'll have to take the long way round to get to the canteen!" he sounded pissed. "No, I wanna have a word with _him_ regarding _Takato_!" Henry seethed. Ryo glanced right out of the corner of his eye, "No Henry. Let me handle this!" Kenta grabbed a hold of Henry's left shoulder and motioned him to follow. The group of four turned around and wandered off back down the corridor they came.

Marcus wasn't happy, his chance was slipping away fast, and he had to act. "Chris, Kazuki, either side of Akiyama now!" The two notorious bullies of the school began to circle Ryo when a voice sounded out... "Hey now, four against one seems like shitty and unfair odds, doesn't it, Ryo?"

Omoi spun around in confusion wondering where the voice was coming from, suddenly, all he felt was the darkness taking over him, "Urgh... crap!" he managed to get out before falling face first onto the floor unconscious.

Marcus looked around frantically, "Who's there?" The voice laughed, "Well now... that would spoil the surprise then, wouldn't it?"

"SHOW YOURSELF!" screamed Marcus. "As you wish!" the voice replied. Chris and Kazuki braced themselves for anything coming their way... but nothing came. Suddenly, a person walked out of the shadows, coming back from the canteen. Marcus took a step back and gasped, "Y...you?" he pointed a shaky looking finger at the boy across from him. "Who...ME? I'm your worst NIGHTMARE!" he laughed, Kazu always had a knack for scaring the shit out of people that threatened him or his friends, Ryo would've liked to know how he did it.

"Now!" he began, "I think four against two is slightly better odds, don't you agree?" he glanced at Ryo, who smirked in confirmation. "And anyway, I haven't had a good fight in a while!" he grinned menacingly. Marcus quickly backed up into Chris and Kazuki, who then assorted themselves in front of him. Ryo and Kazu stood next to each other, clearly sending a message saying that they didn't want to be fucked with. Kazu raised his left arm and pointed at the boys opposite them; Ryo then raised his right arm and pointed at the three lads. "Fight on roof..." began Kazu. Ryo looked a bit perplexed, and he eyed his fighting friend, but Kazu was still looking in front at the three bullies. Ryo shrugged his shoulders, 'Meh, what the hell. Might as well go along with it anyway!' he smiled in anticipation, "...In ten minutes!" finished Ryo. He then looked at Omoi on the floor unconscious, "Oh, and you might want to pick him up as well..." he pointed at the crumpled heap on the corridor floor.

Marcus whispered something to Kazuki and then pointed at Omoi. Kazuki wandered over and picked up the lighter lad. Marcus pointed at both Ryo and Kazu, "You'll regret this! Akiyama and Shioda!"

Ryo smirked, knowing full well that there was no backing out now. "Fuck you, _Yamamoto_!" he flipped him the finger, trying to goad the other lad. Marcus snorted and turned around. Organising Chris and Kazuki to follow him down the end of the corridor; they turned the corner and they were gone.

Ryo heaved a sigh, turning to his friend and ex-Tamer "Crap! Another fight Kazu?" he raised his eyebrows at his friend. Kazu looked over at Ryo, "Pah! They won't know what hit them!" he grinned mischievously, waving off the doubts of his worried friend.

Ryo snorted, "Like last time I presume!"

"You bet!" Kazu snarled in anticipation, cracking his knuckles to loosen them up.

Ryo suddenly realised something, "Oh crap! The rest of us didn't grab any lunch! Damn and I sent them the long way round!" face-palming with his right hand.

However Kazu was one step ahead, "Don't worry Ryo, I managed to pick up something for everyone, while I was in there. I only heard a small amount of the conversation anyway, as soon as I heard _**his**_ name I was going to step in, but I see that you and Henry handled it pretty well!" he smirked, tossing Ryo a sandwich and a drink. "Tuna AGAIN? Flipping heck Kazu, you **know** that I don't eat a lot of fish!" he irked. Kazu laughed, "Well, what can I say... I guess it's a habit! Haha!" and with that Kazu began walking off down the corridor, trying to find the rest of their friends.

Ryo sighed, _"Why the hell did he get so smart after Takato disappeared?"_ He then shrugged his shoulders, lost on what it could be, _"Ah well, must be a habit of his! Damn him and his stupid habits!"_ He then began wondering down the corridor, not watching to where he was going; thinking of how much had changed since Takato disappeared.

**Chapter 4 Completed**

**A/N: I thank you all for putting up with me and waiting patiently for this chapter of Digimon Tamers: TKoD. I'll do my best in uploading the next chapter A.S.A.P**

**Until Next Time!**

**PREVIEW of Chapter 5**

Raised in front of the three, about 40 feet tall, covered in metal and light blue coloured skin, stood the Mega level Digimon. Takato's eyes squinted towards the top; he could just about spy two objects. One of them spoke. "This time Takato Matsuki, you will not come out of here alive!" a serious tone lashed out from the voice of the Digimon Kaiser.

**AltairN: I hope that preview has gotten you all psyched for the next instalment of Digimon Tamers: TKoD**

**Just a little side note on the schooling, I am doing this in an English style; so 4 - 11 Primary, 11 - 16 Secondary, 16 - 18 College. I hope that can clear some things up. If there is anything else that anyone is not sure about, then feel free to PM me or just stick your comment in the review section.**

**R&R please :D**

**Ja Ne!**


	5. Enter The Kaiser And The Return To RW

**AltairN: I am incredibly sorry for the long delay and waiting for this fanfic author to get up off his behind and begin typing once again. To be honest with you I wasn't sure myself if I was even going to write again, never mind fanfiction! I didn't know where I wanted to take the story as it has literally been 6 MONTHS without me looking at this. So it may take me a while to get back into the swing of things. I feel really bad that I have forced each and every one of you to put up with me.**

**I already have chapter 6 typed up, I just need to proof-read it myself and give it the once over (but I'm sure that you guys will find some errors, I'm not God you know) I'm not entirely sure when I'll post it but I will do it as fast as I can.**

**BlackGuilmon: You pitiful fool...**

**AltairN: AHHH! When did you get here!**

**Guilmon: Stop stealing my limelight! You're history!**

_***Takato walks in***_

**Takato: I don't think so; he's still in the story...**

**_*with an evil grin* _Guilmon: Not for long though...**

**AltairN: STOP GIVING PLOT TWISTS AWAY YOU THREE! RENAMON! SICK 'EM!**

_***Renamon appears from the corner of the room***_

**Renamon: As you wish!**

**Guilmon: ...SHIT!...**

**BlackGuilmon: RUN!**

**Takato: ...**

**...**

**BlackGuilmon/ Guilmon: Huh?**

**_*Hanging out of window*_ Takato: Bye bye _*drops off*_**

**Renamon: Now you are my playthings... DIE!**

**DIAMOND STORM!**

**BlackGuilmon/ Guilmon: AHHHHHHHH MUMMY!**

_***Outside***_

**Takato: Oh by the way, AltairNamikaze does not own Digimon. If he did, he'd let me do kickass stuff like that!**

* * *

"Grrrrraaaaaaaaaaaa!" another scream was heard over the parting sand dunes. "Easy boy!" Takato grunted and smacked BlackGuilmon on the back of the head, "_He's_ not here! You can relax!" Suddenly, the feral look in BlackGuilmon's eyes faded slowly into a cold, stone-hard grey. He sighed, "Sorry Takato, you know how it's been lately" Takato grunted in response, "Looks like the rest of you are surprised to see us?" he looked over towards the stunned group of seven Digimon starring back at them, looking like they had just came through hell.

"Well yeah! Considering you were both underneath God knows how much sand!" spoke Guardromon incredulously. Leomon just mumbled something under his breath that thankfully, no one was able to catch.

"Anyway, why were you both fighting last night anyway? Didn't you hear the warnings that where sent around the whole Southern Quadrant?" BlackGuilmon turned to face the rest of the Digimon, giving them a look as to say 'Do you think I give a damn?' Takato decided to answer for his partner, "Yeh, we heard them! So what?"

Cyberdramon face-palmed, "_**He**_ is getting more active as of late, and I don't think that you two should be lurking around at the dead of night, and getting into all-out brawls!" he sighed. "And don't forget; we're so close to the end now! I don't know what we would do if we were spotted now...oh crap!" he quickly clamped both of his hands over his stupid, enlarged mouth. Takato's eyes flashed a dully electric yellow colour directed at Cyberdramon, staring him down. He flinched in the process and was sweating bullets at the amount of killer intent that was radiating off Takato himself. "I...Ummm, ehhhehh... crap!" he grinned sheepishly, "Sorry?" he pleaded, his voice tone etched with worry.

The other Digimon were wondering what Cyberdramon was going on about. Takato sighed; knowing that the game could be up soon if he didn't act fast. In the end he found it to be no use, they would all find out eventually. "I can all see the looks in your eyes, don't bother with any questions; 'cause I'm gonna tell you!" he decided that enough was enough, he would have to tell them. _'I thought it would never come to this!'_ He then looked across the desert horizon, noting that the sun was setting peacefully _'Not for long though...'_ "It's ready at dusk!" Cyberdramon nodded his head in confirmation. Renamon decided to question them both, considering that the rest of the Digimon didn't have a clue on what was going on. "What are you two both going on about? What is this thing? Why is it ready at dusk? And WHY didn't the rest of us get to know?" each question flew off her tongue one after another, bombarding her fellow Digimon and their human companion. She glared at Cyberdramon, looking for answers. Unfortunately, she received nothing but a stone-edged façade staring back at her.

"WELL?" she shouted exuberantly.

"It's a Digital Portal!" a voice spoke that was not coming from Cyberdramon, or Takato. She pivoted around ninety degrees to her right. "Guilmon..." she began.

"ENOUGH!" he shouted, this caused the entire group of Digimon to jump at the sudden hike of volume. Takato just stared lazily at the dino Digimon, wondering what he was about to do.

"NO MORE TESTS! NO MORE FAILURES! WE NEED THIS TO WORK TONIGHT!" he screamed, bringing up some dirt and rocks with the sheer raw power he was emitting.

He soon died down the killer intent he was letting loose. He then grinned devilishly. "Tonight, my friends... we embark on a journey... a journey to go home..." The other Digimon looked puzzled at what BlackGuilmon had just said. Renamon's eyes widened at the sudden realisation, "You mean... we will get to see _**them**_?" BlackGuilmon's face changed from an evil stature; to emitting a glowing, heart-warming smile directed at everyone, but mainly towards Renamon. She began blushing at the way BlackGuilmon was smiling at her. It reminded her of the old Guilmon. He then cleared his throat, "Our final destination... west Shinjuku!" he bellowed with a joyous shout, sounding the happiest he had been in a long time.

* * *

Ryo and Kazu finally caught up with the rest of the group of four; Henry, Kenta, Jeri, and Suzie. "Yo guys. What up?" Kazu spoke as he stepped into the stride of his friends; Kenta was the first to speak to his close friend. "Kazu, where the heck have you been? One second you were in front of us, next you vanished into thin air. You know we got cornered by Marcus and his thick-headed friends _again!_" Kazu laughed, "Well, me and Ryo are off to deal with them in about five minutes. You're willing to join us if you like!" he smirked. Kenta's face looked like someone had someone had just slapped him with an incredibly large, wet fish. "You WHAT?" he yelled. Ryo had to rescue his ears from the blistering noise emitting from Kenta's mouth, by simply putting his own hands over them. "It's like he said, Kenta. We're going to deal with them up on the roof in about..." he glimpsed at his watch, "Four minutes!" he grinned mischievously. "And anyway" Kazu butted back in, "Last time I got suspended for two weeks because of that prick, so it's time to pay him back... in interest!" he cackled insanely. Kenta just looked at his best friends of twelve years, noticing that he was really pumped up for the encounter up on the roof. Henry and the rest of the group overheard what the two of them were saying; it wasn't really that hard, because they were literally shouting it out to one another. He quickly turned to Ryo, "You're really doing this?" he asked. Ryo lowered his head and nodded dully, "Yeh, mainly for Takato, not ourselves. Little bastards won't know what hit 'em!" he clenched his fist in anger. "And besides..." he lifted his head up, "Me and Marcus go back... and I mean waaaaay back!" he grinned, _"Time for a little payback for all those years ago!"_

* * *

Daytime quickly drew to a close in the Digital World, the group of nine wandered aimlessly through the desert and across the lowest Digital Plane, towards the outskirts of the desert itself. "Are we nearly there yet?" moaned Terriermon. Guardromon sighed, "No, we are not there yet Terriermon! And we won't get there any sooner if you carry on yappin' like that!" he snapped. Terriermon grinned sheepishly; he had his mouth halfway open... "AND DON'T SAY MOMENTAI! I'M FED UP WITH YOU AND YOUR ANTICS!" screamed Lopmon, coming out of nowhere. Terriermon shut his trap and grinned once again. Leomon held his paws to his ears, he was the unfortunate one that had Lopmon on top of his head, "Can you **two both** stop your arguing! You're both acting like a married couple!" at that statement, everyone shut up shop, so to speak. Lopmon slowly realised what Leomon had said and her cheeks burned a scintillating crimson colour. "Wha...What d...d...doooo you mean b...by tha...t?" her voice ever steadily rising. Terriermon on the other hand, had a really complicated confused facial expression etched onto his face. "Meh; shut up Leomon. I was only trying to lighten the mood!" he sighed. He then launched himself into the air with the grace of an eagle, and flew about 100 feet into the air, scouting all around the surrounding area. "AND BESIDES..." he then folded his ears inwards towards his body, and started to plummet to the ground. Lopmon was snapped out of her trance-like state when she noticed where Terriermon was. She gasped, stupefied at what Terriermon was doing, "TERRIERMON!" she screamed.

Suddenly, his ears opened up once more and halted his body just about 5 feet above the ground itself. "We've got trouble..." he spoke in a rare serious tone. Takato spun around and looked at the dog-bunny Digimon, "It's _him_ isn't it?" Terriermon nodded, "Bang on the button, Takato! He's east of here" he paused for a brief lungful of oxygen. "Considering the speed he's going, I'd say he'll be here in about 30 minutes!"

Takato nodded in acknowledgement, _"Hmm... he's never usually out at night. I'm surprised I haven't seen him at all today. Something must be up if he's coming for us right now; and, how did specifically know that we were here? Did he get warnings of last night's Desert Storm across the whole Southern Quadrant? No, they should only be natural occurrences; no one should be able to issue warnings about them in advance. Last night didn't feel like a natural occurrence. It felt more... subdued."_ His eyes widened at a possible realisation, _"No... it couldn't be! There's no connection on how that could happen. No one in their right mind can __**control**__ a Desert Storm!"_ he snapped out of his thoughts and glanced up ahead. He could just about spy out a faint glow, possibly another mile and a half away. _That_ was their destination... the supposed Digi-Portal that would take them home. He just hoped that it was fully repaired from last time's attempt. He glanced at his right hand, slow electric currents running through his veins, and up towards his forearm and shoulder. _"I'm lucky that my body can fight against it, I think it's because of the Digital mass within me; to be honest I thought I was a goner!"_ He glanced at the rest of the Digimon; most of them hadn't spoken in a while, if not at all since the attempted rescues of him and BlackGuilmon.

"We'll need to pick up the pace, if we want to get there before it closes!" he spoke in a serious tone.

"Yeh!" BlackGuilmon nodded vigorously. The rest of the Digimon nodded in acknowledgement. Takato then jumped onto the back of BlackGuilmon, getting into a low saddling position. Marineangemon and Lopmon both clung themselves onto Leomon's shoulders, Terriermon took off once again using his ears, whilst Guardromon fired up his shoulder boosters and propelled after him. Cyberdramon and Renamon both grunted in response and readied themselves in anticipation.

"Wait!" BlackGuilmon spoke. Takato looked puzzled, "What's up boy?" BlackGuilmon grunted, "Could you get off me for a second Takato, I want to try something!" Cyberdramon cut across him, "This had better not be a crazy stunt like last time!"

BlackGuilmon smiled cockily, "I can assure you it won't! Now stand back!" Everyone took a couple of steps back to be on guard in case anything happened. Thankfully they wouldn't need it.

"Grrrrrraaaaaaaaa!" BlackGuilmon screamed out. It sounded a lot like he was in pain. All the ground-ridden Digimon moved a step closer. "Don't move towards him!" Takato bellowed, "Just watch!" with a wondrous look on his face, wanting to know what BlackGuilmon was doing as well.

His whole body then began to glow a mysterious golden colour, Takato could see that his shoulder blades were moving slightly apart even more, and then something began to protrude out of his back that looked significantly like his actual shoulders. Takato blinked once again and what he saw amazed him.

"Jeez, just tell the Kaiser we're here why don't you..." Cyberdramon remarked dryly, rolling his head.

The light had finally died down and there stood in his glory was BlackGuilmon, or should he say _formerly_ BlackGuilmon. He had finally changed back to the colours that Takato had created him with, a _Red_ body with _Black_ markings adorning his body. He checked again, _"Yep, the black hazard symbol is there... like almost he was back to normal"._ He glanced at his back once more, and noticed a pair of dark grey metallic wings. "These are the Majestic wings that Grani had given my when me and Takato went and stopped the D-Reaper 3 years ago!" Everyone looked on in awe at the sight of the _new_ and _original_ Guilmon.

"You can come back over Takato!" he spoke. Takato walked back over towards Guilmon and positioned himself to climb back on. He placed his body between the wings that had sprouted on Guilmon's back. "You ready?" Guilmon asked Takato. He nodded anticipation, wondering how these would work with himself on the back of Guilmon. "We... have... take-off!" he announced. The Digimon were now even more in awe at what Guilmon was doing, he was hovering at least 3 metres off the ground, the Majestic wings vibrating at a fast pace. Takato looked over at the side of Guilmon, seeing that he wasn't at eye-level with Cyberdramon and Renamon anymore. He grinned in excitement, "Right let's catch up with Terriermon and Guardromon. I bet they haven't even realised that we aren't below them yet!"

"Let's move!" Guilmon roared. The group of seven shot off into the night, towards their comrades, and their final destination.

* * *

A large blur shot through the entrance to the Western Plains, destroying majority of the border wall in the process. It was definitely a Digimon, it's breathing laboured, it had most probably been moving at the same constant pace for quite a while now. The Digimon's colours contrasted of a light blue body with a yellow and red tail, which looked ominously like a fin-tail. Metal parts were adorned over some areas of its body, a set of yellow eyes and a shark-featured face, along with the teeth to match, this Digimon was known as MetalSeadramon. If you looked closely enough, you could notice that there were two objects on top of the MetalSeadramon. "Come on Metal head, can't you go any faster?" yelled one of the objects. This was a small rebellious Digimon known as Gotsumon, a humanoid Digimon that looked like he was made from a bunch of rocks. "Pssh! Shut it boulder brain, or I'll _**accidentally**_ throw you off me and you will plunge to your death!"

"I don't think the Emperor will like that though MetalSeadramon; so shut your trap and move it will ya!" Gotsumon boasted out towards the moving dragon, not noticing the killing intent coming from the other object behind him.

"Emperor, was it?" Gotsumon's face paled, realising his mistake at the last moment. He spun around and got down on both knees with his hands in front of them. The object moved ever-so slightly to reveal a pair of human feet. It sighed, "Will you two pipe down! It's giving me a headache!" it spoke. Immediately, both of the Digimon had shut their mouths in fear of what would have happened if they had continued. Gotsumon was vigorously shaking on his hands and knees, he then swallowed a gulp of air he realised he was holding in due fear. He finally spoke up, "A-a-a-apologies Kaiser-sama it will not happen again" his voice shook ever so slightly with a lot of fear. MetalSeadramon grunted in response, "I am sorry Master; I will not speak out of line next time!" The shadow nodded, "Good! Because next time _**either**_ of you step out of line, or even whisper a single word, I'll have you thrown to the Piranhamon! Do you understand!" It wasn't a question, but a defined statement.

Gotsumon nodded his head vigorously, ensuring that he understood. MetalSeadramon began pushing his already sluggish body to his limit and beyond and thus going faster to reach their destination quicker.

"...and I am not in the same league as the one who came before me, The Emperor. I am higher in status, more resourceful, every single Digimon in existence is afraid of me, the dark lord, and best of all... I AM MORE POWERFUL! HAHAHA!" the deep voice cackled out with insane laughter emitting from its lips, "I AM THE DIGIMON KAISER!"

* * *

Terriermon's ears perked up, "They're moving faster now, a lot faster. _He_ must have ordered them to move quicker. I'd say they're about 10 minutes away, tops!" he bellowed down below at the group. Or at least he thought they were there. Neither Digimon looked downwards, if they had, they would have noticed that nobody was below them.

* * *

Takato grimaced; this was not looking good for them. It had looked like Terriermon and Guardromon hadn't even bothered to look down to see if they were there the whole time they had stopped. He was in a lowered position on top of Guilmon, like a motorcyclist would be on his bike. He lent over slowly towards Guilmon's ear so as to not make him off balance, "You alright boy? This isn't pushing you is it?" he asked, looking concerned for his re-born partner. BlackGuilmon grunted, and re-shifted Takato back to his original position before replying; "No! This ain't pushing me Takato!" Takato sighed, "Yeh alright boy! Just take it quick and easy! Don't want anyone else damaging themselves now, do we?" he quickly glanced around his right side at one part of the group, Cyberdramon and Renamon were both keeping up with them, surprisingly; considering they were both badly injured less than two hours ago, Renamon especially. He then looked upwards and forwards, towards the sky to see where Guardromon and Terriermon were. Both were clearly a good distance away and above Takato, Terriermon on the right side and Guardromon on the left. He then glanced awkwardly over his left shoulder, spotting Leomon with Marineangemon and Lopmon both clinging on for dear life on his shoulders. The beast Digimon did not look worn down at all, Takato presumed this to be due to his past nature, constantly training and pushing his body to the limit. The same could be said for Cyberdramon, due to Ryo's training of him in the past; but apart from that, Takato barely knew anything about the dragon man's past.

Surprisingly, Renamon was still keeping up with the group, although she was showing small sights of fatigue, she didn't let it bother her. _"Must keep up with the group, we are so close now! Soon... soon I will see you again Rika. I can count on that!"_ she then mustered more energy from her reserves from God-knows where, her past memories of Rika spurring her onward.

* * *

"It's time Ryo!" Kazu shouted over to his friend. Ryo nodded in acknowledgement and stood up, jamming the last of his awful tuna sandwich down his throat. "Next time Kazu, get me _meat_ and _not fish_ alright!" he moaned, his stomach being upset by the fish. Kazu laughed, "You didn't have to eat it you know. I've got a steak and cheese one right here!" and to prove a point, he pulled one out the very bag he had given everyone their sandwiches. Ryo's face contorted into a look of rage, "I hate you! You do know that Shoida!" he swiftly snatched the other sandwich out of Kazu's grasp. He then proceeded to tear open the packaging and gorge into the precious meat sandwich. "Mmm... this is guuuud!" he moaned in satisfaction with a mouthful of steak. He had the sandwich devoured within a minute. He then wiped his mouth with his right hand and spread the grease onto the nearest thing, which unfortunately was Kenta's bag. "Hey! Watch were you wipe your hands Ryo!" he yelled. Ryo realised what he had done, "Ah, sorry Kenta! I didn't mean too, honest!" Kenta nodded disapprovingly, now looking at the greasy hand print left by Ryo. "Tell you what. I'll buy you a brand new one. Even better, you can pick which one you want!" he smiled. "R...r...really?" he stammered in surprise, never knowing this to happen to him. "Yeh sure, no problem!" he smiled.

He then turned to Kazu, "Ready?" Kazu nodded, "Let's go and beat the little bastards to shit!" a massive grin was formed onto his face as he said this.

"Wait! Let me go as well!" another voice spoke out.

"What! Are you mad Henry? You could get seriously injured out there! I don't want anything happening to you!" Jeri yelled out, startled that her boyfriend would want to take part in a four on three _brawl_, and on the school roof no less.

Ryo and Kazu turned to Henry, "What made you chose this Henry?" spoke Ryo with a serious tone in his voice. "The main reason is that they need to get knocked the hell out for disregarding Takato! The next reason is that four on two would be a bit of a struggle, even for you two. So that's why I'm joining, four against three is better odds. Alright, they're not brilliant, but we'll give 'em a run for their money!" he grinned in satisfaction. Nobody had ever heard Henry curse before so this was a surprise to all of them.

Kazu then proceeded to walk over to Henry and slap him on the shoulder, "Exactly what Takato would have done! Ain't that right Ryo?" he twisted his head slightly to the older teen. Ryo just nodded his head in confirmation. "Come on then. We don't wanna be late!" he turned to the girls and Kenta "You three stay here! We're only around the corner from the stairs that lead to the roof. I'm sure you'll hear me or Kazu a couple of times!" he flashed his grin at them.

"Do you two think this is a game?" Suzie spoke out angrily.

"Of course they don-"

"Shut up Henry!" she yelled. Everyone was shocked that Suzie had screamed at her own brother with the intent she displayed. She turned back to Ryo and Kazu, "Well, do you?"

Ryo sighed, "In my all honest opinion... No! Well, I certainly don't anyway. I don't know about Mr. Scare-the-shit-out-of-everyone over here. But that's just me!"

Suzie then glared at Kazu with the same piercing effect she had done on Ryo and Henry, "And what about you?"

Kazu just stared back at Suzie, looking stone-faced and not at all bothered. "Well? Answer me!" she yelled. Kazu sighed, he then turned around slightly, about to head for the stairs leading to the roof. He then stopped, and faced Suzie once again. He sighed once more, "I don't have time for this!" he then proceeded to spin on his heels and began marching the ascent up the stairs were the other four boys would be waiting for him.

Suzie's face became red with anger, "AND JUST WHERE DO YOU THINK HE'S GOING?" she screamed at the distant Kazu, as well as the rest of the group. Ryo shrugged his shoulders and then proceeded to follow Kazu up the long set of stairs. He then turned back towards Henry, "Well, you coming or not?" Jeri and Suzie both looked at Henry with looks; one was with worry and the other was with anger. Kenta just sighed. "I... I guess" he murmured, looking towards the floor trying to avoid the looks the girls were giving him. "Wait up!" he then got into his stride and proceeded to walk with Ryo up the stairs.

Kazu had already reached the top of the stairs, and proceeded to open the door to the roof without waiting for the other two.

"Right you arseholes! Let's party!" he yelled.

He looked around and surprisingly, he couldn't see anyone up on the roof... except one fiery red head roughly about his age, leaning against the wall, about 6 metres in front of him.

"Who exactly are you calling an asshole, Kazu?" she spoke coolly. Kazu sweat dropped, "Erm, definitely not you Rika! Definitely not you, eheh!" he chuckled nervously as he stepped back a couple of steps.

He cleared his throat, "I thought Marcus and his cronies would already be up here. Guess I'm mistaken!" he sighed. "What are _you_ doing up here anyway Rika?" he asked the 15 year old girl, surprised that he would find her up here.

Rika turned her head to one side and mumbled something inaudible to Kazu. "What was that Rika?" he asked. Rika turned to face him, a small leak of tears running down her face, "I said... I come up here to forget everything, and to remember _him_!" she answered softly.

Kazu was shocked; he never knew Takato's disappearance would have this great of an effect on the poor girl. _"Well, she had started to become more distant when we went back to school. I guess it slowly started from there!"_

"Damn you Takato! Didn't you realise how much of an effect you had on all our lives? Especially Rika's!" he slammed his hand into the wall in anger, hoping, waiting for an answer, but unfortunately, got nothing.

Rika gasped, however Kazu didn't notice, _"Kazu knows something about what happened three years ago. I need to ask him... but... but it hurts so much just even __**thinking**__ about him! I... I don't think I can just openly speak about him, because I'll just become an emotional wreck again!"_

"Rika?" he spoke.

"_His voice sounded really serious just then. What for?"_ she wondered.

"Yeh Kazu?" she replied softly.

"Marcus and the others will be up here in less than five minutes. Ryo and Henry are just following behind me up the stairs. Kenta, Jeri and Suzie are waiting just around the left corner next to the stairs. I told them to wait there in case anything happened. Why don't you join them downstairs" he followed up with a soft smile adorning his face.

Rika looked up at Kazu and could hear that Ryo and Henry were just coming up the final few steps. "Yeh, I think I might" she smiled, "Tell Henry and Mr. Popular over there that I'm back with the group now. But... but I'm still trying to... get over _him_. If you know what I mean!" Kazu nodded, ensuring that he understood completely, _"So, she fell in love with Takato three years ago at D-Reaper, but she's trying to get over the loss of him. Right... makes total sense!"_ he rolled his eyes in exaggeration.

"HUH? What the-" Kazu turned around so fast it nearly knocked Rika off her feet. _"That was Ryo's voice coming from the stairs. What the..."_

Suddenly Kazu heard another voice, one _more familiar_, "Fuck you Akiyama! Take that! OI! Where do you think you're going Wong? Kazuki grab him!"

"KAZU HEEEELP!" screamed another voice. _"Shit! Henry and Ryo are screwed!"_ Before he could take a step towards the stairs the second voice from before, "DON'T you even THINK of moving Shioda! Me and my boys have your two buddies here; and you won't take another step unless you want that little cutie standing next to you to be harmed!"

Kazu's eyes widened. He jumped backwards towards where Rika was still standing; in a daze... she hadn't moved an inch.

"Oh yeah! I just remembered; don't worry about your other friends downstairs, some of my lads took care of that one you call Kenta. I'm guessing he's knocked out right about now. The rest of them are looking after the girls right now... so to speak" the voice spoke again.

"You fucking bastard! You touch either of them and you're dead!" screamed Henry, Kazu flinched at the ferocity of Henry's voice. He presumed he was struggling out of the vice-like grip the cronies had him in. "Kazuki... make him shut up!" spoke Marcus furiously. "Why you! Ack... urgh!" Kazu guessed that Henry had the wind knocked out of him.

Henry's mind then flashbacked to just a couple of minutes before, were he and Ryo were ambushed.

* * *

_****flashback****_

"Right you arseholes! Let's party!" yelled Kazu.

Ryo sighed, "There he goes running his obscenely large gob! I wish he wouldn't do that..." he moaned.

'_Clunk!'_ "He... muuummmmfffff!"

Henry quickly spun 180 degrees and glared back down the stairs, _"I'm sure I just heard something! It sounded like it was coming from where Kenta and the girls were!"_ he didn't budge from his position.

"Hey Henry... come on! For all we know Kazu could be in over his head already!" Ryo snapped back. Henry clicked his head slightly to the right, loosening up a muscle that was tight. "I'm sure I just heard something down there Ryo. I'm sure of it!"

Ryo sighed, "It's probably nothing Henry. Now come on, let's move!" he snapped.

"Not so fast _boys_!" spoke a voice, coming from the bottom of the stairs.

"I told ya!" Henry shouted. Ryo spun around so fast he bumped into Henry by accident; thus sending the 15 year old tumbling down a couple of steps. This was the chance the voice needed, "NOW! Grab him!" it yelled.

Henry braced for the impact he was going to receive... but none came. Instead, the he came into contact with the concrete wall surrounding the stairs. "HUH? What the..." Ryo's voice echoed around the stairway. Ryo's eyes squinted in the now dimly lit stairway; "Fuck you Akiyama!" he suddenly felt a clenched fist embed itself into his stomach section, and doubled over, his vision suddenly became blurred. He then felt his arms get snapped around his back and his knees buckled towards the floor with enormous force.

Henry opened his eyes, seeing nothing but the dull, grey concrete wall staring blankly back at him. He quickly spun around, noticing that there were 3 guys holding Ryo hostage, and the fourth one in front of him. He could spy some movement at the bottom of the stairs, wondering what had happened to Kenta and the girls, _"I hope they are alright!"_ he thought.

Suddenly, just as he was about to leave, the fourth person spun around, noticing that Henry hadn't ended up like Ryo, he acted. "OI! Where d you think you're going Wong?" he then directed one of his cronies to go and successfully grab Henry, "Kazuki grab him!" he shouted.

One of the cronies that were holding Ryo suddenly launched himself at Henry and grabbed him in a headlock. "KAZU HEEEELP!" he screamed, while trying to get out of the headlock. Two more cronies appeared from the bottom of the stairs, and they proceeded to grab Henry, while Kazuki let go of him. Marcus then turned up towards the top of the stairs, "Don't even think about moving Shioda, me and my boys here have your buddies cornered. Oh yeah, as well as the rest of them taking care of the girls downstairs!" he laughed.

"You fucking bastard! You touch either of them and you're dead!" Henry gritted out. Marcus turned to Kazuki, "Make him shut up!" Kazuki obliged, by swinging his right arm into Henry's stomach area knocking the wind out of him.

"You two at the bottom, go up top and deal with Shioda!" Marcus bellowed.

"Roger!"

_****flashback end****_

"Shit! How many did Marcus bring?" Kazu wondered.

"KAZU!" Rika shouted.

Kazu stole a side glance at Rika, "Yeh, I know. I can see them!" he was referring to the two new cronies that had appeared from the entrance of the stairs. "I'm guessing that Marcus has got more than just the 4 of them. I'm guessing he must have about 15 with him!"

"_Yeh, that's about right. Two each for the girls downstairs, one keeping an eye on Kenta; two each for Henry and Ryo, these two goons that have just appeared, and the original four!"_

"Rika, I need you to move back a bit and more towards the wall!" he spoke in a commanding tone.

Rika nodded in acknowledgement, and proceeded to move back.

"Not so fast Shioda!" one of the lackeys yelled.

"We're gonna pummel you into the ground! Get ready!" the other boy shouted.

Kazu then slipped into an easy Karate stance, _"I'm glad I took those extra classes now. Thanks Cyberdramon!"_ his smile enlarged into a full grin.

"Oh I'm more than ready! Bring it on lard ass!" he taunted one of the lads that, fortunately for him, had a rather large body.

The boy's face went red with rage, and thus he charged him head on. "Fuck you Shioda!" his right fist came hurtling towards Kazu's left side of his face.

With one swift motion, Kazu had ducked his head, twisted his body to the right, and using his right leg, swiped the boy from underneath himself. He then grabbed the boy's leading arm and twisted it vigorously to the left, to lad's right, bringing it back on itself as the boy was falling to the floor; thus enabling a loud snapping sound to reverberate around the roof. The boy then collapsed into a heap on the floor, writhing in pain and screaming that his arm was broken.

Kazu suddenly stood up and walked over to the lad that was on the floor... and swiftly dropped one knee into the boy's stomach, knocking the wind out of the poor guy; and then crouched next to him. "_Don't __**fuck**__ with me! Understand?"_

The lad, also known as Troy to his friends, the other bullies; nodded weakly. "Shioda you bastard! How dare you fucking break Troy's arm. For that, you're a dead man!" screamed the other lad, whole was situated at the doorway. Kazu suddenly looked up at the other boy with fierce rage in his eyes, "YARU KA?" he yelled at the lad, seeing red. "Hell yeah I want some... gonna kick your ass!" the other lad, know as Toby, yelled.

Kazu glanced back at Troy, who was still on the floor underneath his knee. "I'll be back for you later. Don't move on my account, please!" he grinned devilishly. He suddenly stood up and spun back around to face Toby. "What you standing there for? I thought you said you were gonna come and get me!" he goaded the other lad; however Toby wasn't having any of it. "Pssh, I'm just waiting for you to make the first move. I ain't making the same mistake as Troy over there!"

Rika was watching the newly developed exchange between the two 15 year olds. She was amazed that Kazu had just taken out one of the biggest lads in the entire school, and for him to even _break his arm_! She was wondering where and how he had learned those Martial Arts. _"Could be his father; I heard he was one of the higher ups in the military in the whole of Japan!"_ she mused.

"Rika!"

She turned slightly to her right towards Kazu, "Yes?"

"I need you to come here for a minute!" he spoke sternly. She then proceeded to walk over towards her fellow ex-Tamer.

Suddenly, there was a noise that sounded very much like an explosion, and shattering glass from a couple of classrooms below. The ferocity of the explosion shook the entire school. Rika grasped herself onto the closest thing possible... and that was Kazu. "Oof!" he steadied himself against the wall, grasping Rika in the process so that she wouldn't fall.

_Beep beep..._

"Huh? What's that?" Kazu muttered. He put his right hand inside his right jacket pocket, were he pulled out his old, brown D-Arc. "Huh? Hey Rika" he spoke softly. She looked up at him, "You still carry _that_ around?" she looked at him with a puzzled look on her face. "Well... yeah. It helps me remember _them_" A small smile crept upon Rika's face, "Well... that's a funny thing..." she went to grab something out of her left jeans pocket. Kazu gasped. It was her blue D-Arc. "I do too!" she smiled with her eyes closed, not wanting Kazu to see her crying behind her eyelids. Kazu smiled sincerely at her, forgetting to look on his D-Arc, if he had he would have noticed that there were 3 red dots showing up on the centre of the screen.

Toby on the other hand was steadying himself against the walls of the stairway. "How are you guys holding down there!" he yelled back towards where Marcus and the rest of them were holding Henry and Ryo. "It's a bloody earthquake! How do you think I am!" screamed Marcus, infuriated with Toby's stupidity.

The explosion went as fast as it came. The two boys on the roof had managed to regain their footing, and began to stare one another down once more. Rika stumbled over towards the wall edge and peered over. She noticed two objects standing on the window frame, about two floors below. She couldn't quite make them out. _"What the heck are they?"_ The two objects suddenly _flew_ off the window and headed towards the downtown district of West Shinjuku.

* * *

_About 20 minutes before..._

"Terriermon?"

"Yes Guardromon" spoke Terriermon.

"Where's Takato and the rest of them?" he mused.

"Huh? What the-?" he spun around in mid-air and looked downwards towards the ground. "Where are they?" he shouted.

"That's what I just asked you!" spoke Guardromon. "I know that!" yelled Terriermon. By this time both had stopped flying towards their destination and were both trying to seek out the rest of their group.

"Hey what's that?" he shouted. "What? Where?" Guardromon was spinning around trying to look where Terriermon was pointing. "THERE!" he spun around, _**"Terrier Tornado!"**_ he screamed, sending out a miniature green tornado towards the way he was pointing. "HEY! I see something over there!" Terriermon sweat dropped, "THAT'S what I was referring to! You douche!" he face palmed.

What they were both referring to, was that they had spotted a large trail of dust from about a mile in the distance, coming in fast. "Is that..." Guardromon began. "It is!" Terriermon cheered. He could just about spy out Takato and BlackGuilmon. "Huh! Why is Guilmon back to normal colour?" he questioned. "Where?" shouted Guardromon. Terriermon face palmed, "Look at the dust cloud!" he sighed. "Ah! Yes, I do see them!" Guardromon spoke with glee.

"What's that?" Guardromon spun around to where Terriermon was. He could see that his fellow Digimon's face had a look of fear and anxiety. "What's what, Terriermon?" he asked. "THAT!" he screamed, and pointed with one of his tiny paws towards terrifying Digimon. "It's...

* * *

"MetalSeadramon!" spoke the Kaiser quietly.

"Yes, Kaiser-sama!" he bowed his head, and came slowly to a stop.

"I spy two intolerable Digimon in the distance! Please, _if you can_, destroy them!" he barked.

"As you wish, Kaiser-sama... _**River of Power!**_" MetalSeadramon yelled. An incredibly bright blue energy beam began charging up inside the cannon on MetalSeadramon's face.

"FIRE!" screamed the Kaiser.

'BOOM!' a sound like a massive gunshot reverberated into the distance. The blue energy beam shot off at an exhilarating pace, towards the two flying Digimon, the shot had even made MetalSeadramon recoil back a few 10 feet.

"They have no chance!" echoed the Kaiser with his eyes gleaming in smugness.

* * *

"I see them!" shouted Leomon.

"Yep, right on time!" smirked Cyberdramon.

"What's THAT?" screamed Renamon.

"That... is trouble! And it's head right for Terriermon and Guardromon!" growled Guilmon.

"Intercept it Guilmon!" Takato shouted over the incredible noise that was being emitted from the energy beam itself.

"WHAT! Are you CRAZY!" screamed Renamon. "You can't just charge in head on!"

Takato smirked, "Just watch us! NOW!" he yelled. With the Majestic wings already at full power, Guilmon dropped and touched the ground for a second... and then bolted with his hind legs up into the air, towards the energy beam. Takato withdrew his kodachi from his sheath slightly, and uttered four words, "Bring it on Kaiser!" he grinned menacingly.

* * *

"Guardromon we need to move now!" screamed Terriermon, with overwhelming fear etched into his voice. He was staring at the blue energy beam that was coming towards them at a very rapid pace. "Y...you d...on'tttt sssaaaayyy!" he stuttered profusely, likewise, he was of course very scared, and frozen to the spot.

"Shit! They're in for it if we don't hurry up!" growled Guilmon. "Yeh, I'll jump off and grab Guardromon. You take it from there ok buddy!" Guilmon nodded in acknowledgement.

They were getting ever so close to where their fellow Digimon were. Takato steadied himself.

"Right... NOW!" Guilmon yelled.

Takato launched himself off the back of Guilmon, towards Guardromon and Terriermon. "Hey Guardromon over here!" he screamed. Guardromon was look around trying to find out where the voice was coming from. "What the... Ah!" he screamed as Takato land on top of him with a great big thud. "Head down, NOW!" he yelled.

"No need to tell me twice!" the Digimon had managed to snap out of his frozen stupor and they both began their descent towards the ground.

* * *

As soon as Takato had leapt off Guilmon, a golden light, just like before, enveloped him. The wings then retracted back into his body, and began his transformation back to BlackGuilmon. The original red body was replaced with black, the markings on his body returned to a dark red colour. His chest area surprisingly stayed the same usual white colour. The Hazard symbol stayed a solid black colour, ensuring that it wasn't in anyway activating. _**"Rock Crusher!"**_ he screamed, launching his claws towards the energy beam side on. _"If I can just make it in time!"_ he thought.

* * *

Terriermon noticed Guardromon dropping down towards the ground at an incredible rate. "OI! Guardromon, where do you think you're going?" he screamed. Guardromon stopped his descent and looked upwards, "In case you haven't noticed, I have Takato on top of me. And don't forget the energy beam coming right for us!" he yelled at Terriermon's thick-headedness.

"EH?" he screamed, a stupefied expression fell over his face. "Ahhhhh CRAP!" he quickly noticed the energy beam coming towards him.

Just as the energy beam was about 20 feet away from Terriermon, BlackGuilmon struck it slap-bang on the side; thus causing the beam to split off into multiple directions. Suddenly, a large black thrash of energy erupted from BlackGuilmon, making the remains of the original _**River of Power**_ energy beam dissipate into none-existence. BlackGuilmon then began to gracefully fall towards the earth, about 500 feet up. He smiled victoriously "Sorted!"

Takato smiled, "Take that Kaiser!" he whispered.

* * *

"Damn, _**that bastard**_ is here!" whispered the Kaiser.

"I am sorry Kaiser-sama, I failed to do what you asked!" MetalSeadramon lowered his head in shame. Kaiser smiled, "Do not worry MetalSeadramon! If we can catch them before they get _there_. Then you will be greatly rewarded!" he grinned sadistically.

"Thank you Kaiser-sama, I will not disappoint you!" MetalSeadramon then began to move out again, towards the Digimon's destination.

"This time Takato Matsuki... you will not escape alive!" he whispered his voice like venom.

* * *

Guardromon landed safety on the sandy ground, not 10 feet away from the rest of the newly found group. Takato jumped off him, "Kaiser is moving. We're only 5 minutes away now, we're so close. Let's not mess this up now!" he gritted his teeth. "Where's Terriermon?" asked Lopmon, worry creeping into her voice. "Momentai! I'm right here!" he yelled. Everyone looked upwards and they spotted Terriermon floating down towards the ground. "It's about time you dolt! I can't believe you let yourself become a makeshift target for _him_! Stopping in mid-air like that, jeez!" she shrieked. "Hey, hey take it easy. I'm here now aren't I? I'm alive and kicking the Digimon Kaiser's ass!" he grinned.

Renamon gasped, "Where's Guilmon?" she was frantically looking around for the virus type Digimon. "I think I can point him out" Cyberdramon's monotone voice droned out. He pointed about 150 feet upwards in the air, spotting a small blob of whatever it was hurtling towards the ground extremely quickly. "GUILMON!" Renamon screamed, finally noticing that the blob was in fact Guilmon.

"Shit!" echoed Leomon, his sword drawn, ready to rush forwards in case it was needed.

"_**Pyro Grenade!"**_ an echo roared in the distance. A dark purple sphere was then sent hurtling towards the ground. It collided with the desert merely seconds later, spewing up sand about 20 feet up into the air.

With an almighty _thud_; BlackGuilmon landed on the ground a couple of seconds later; sending up even more debris into the atmosphere. The whole group then began running over towards him, hoping that he was alright. "GUILMON!" Renamon yelled, surprising sprinting towards the dinosaur Digimon, wondering if he was ok.

'_Her healing must have been getting better. I can barely see a scratch... I'll need to think about this later, but for now...'_

Suddenly, Cyberdramon put his hand out, issuing everyone to stop moving forward. "What are you doing?" Renamon growled in frustration. "Don't move forward, not even one step" he spoke fiercely. "Why?" asked Terriermon, perplexed at what was going on. "We don't have enough time to just stop and wait. _He _is on his way here. We're about a mile away!" yelled Leomon.

When the debris and dust cleared; they all spotted BlackGuilmon crouched down on his hind legs, his body bent forwards with his from claws embedded into the ground. "Guilmon! Are you alright?" The said Digimon looked up towards; completely missing out that he had everyone else staring at him. "Of course I'm fine" he spoke in a sort of lazy voice, not having a care in the world. Cyberdramon cleared his throat, "Ahem! Before you drift off into the land of Guilmon bread... we have an issue!" he growled. BlackGuilmon waved him off as he stood up, "Ha-ha... Guilmon bread..." he drifted off remembering his days with the bread. "Aaaaand we've lost him! Great!" sighed Terriermon, face palming. "Oh and Takato... you are treating me to some of that stuff when we get back!" BlackGuilmon pointed. Cyberdramon sighed, "He seems _very _optimistic that we _will _get back to Earth..." he muttered.

"Anyway, let's get to it!" Takato clapped his hands together. "I believe our ride home won't last much longer if we get on destroying the terrain around it. And I think we've only got another 15 minutes before it closes. So let's MOVE!" he yelled.

"RIGHT!" everyone yelled, ensuring that they understood. They all began the descent towards the Digital Portal in the Western Plains.

* * *

_Barely 5 minutes later..._

"Whew!" Cyberdramon groaned wiping some collective sweat off his forehead, "We made it!" he looked up, seeing a very large, and a _very_ exuberant data stream. Or at least it _looked _like a data stream. "I believe it is ready!" he sighed, turning to face the rest of the group that was with him.

BlackGuilmon nodded in recognition "Damn right!" he grunted. "Isn't that just a _data stream?_" quizzed Renamon, looking up at the large beam of light, going endlessly towards the sky, and towards the Real World. _"Wait a minute... the Real World? I've never seen a __**data stream**__ go that far before!"_ she mused to herself.

"Daaaaaaaaaammmmn! That's one big-ass data stream!" Terriermon yelled. "How in God's earth did you manage to hide this monster from us?" Leomon asked.

Takato was frantically looking around, seeing if _anyone_ or _anything_ was near them. He gasped, "Damn! Guys we need to move, Kaiser's only a couple of minutes away!" BlackGuilmon grunted once again, "Come on guys, let's haul ass!" he motioned to the rest of the Digimon.

Everyone began moving towards the data stream, "Are you _sure_ this is safe Takato?" questioned Guardromon. "Yeh, one hundred percent Guardromon" he glanced at Leomon. "Leo, I need you to take Lopmon and Marineangemon with you!"

"But..." he began.

"Guardromon, I need you to take Renamon and Terriermon with you as well! Me, Guilmon and Cyberdramon will hold him off for as long as it takes!" he reeled off orders like dishing out food at his bakery.

"You're insane!" screeched Lopmon.

BlackGuilmon turned to face her, "We may be insane, but we need to buy you guys some time before he gets here. Now move! Before I make you!" he grunted.

"There is no way that I'm moving from my speck. I'll stay here and kick the Kaiser's _fucking_ ass!" growled Terriermon. There were only ever a couple of incidents that Terriermon ever swore, and they were all to do with the Kaiser; this was no different.

Takato then leaned down towards the dog-bunny Digimon, "He said MOVE!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. Cyberdramon then jumped in front of Lopmon and Marineangemon and moved them onto Leomon's shoulders. "You sure you'll be alright friend?" muttered Leomon. Cyberdramon nodded in acknowledgement "Corse we will. We have Takato with us, what can possibly go wrong?" he grinned.

"...Everything" Leomon whispered.

Cyberdramon laughed, "True, but I'll make sure that won't happen!" Leomon put a paw onto his fellow Digimon's shoulder, "Good luck!" He then proceeded to walk towards the data stream, "Hang on tight Lopmon, Marineangemon!" He turned to Cyberdramon, "I'll see you on the other side partner!" and with one final salute, he was lost within the endless abyss of the stream.

Takato was keeping an eye on things at the back, but he was mainly focused on getting ready for the on-coming threat. "That's three down" he muttered. "Now for the next three!" he turned to the remaining three Digimon who were meant to go through. Unfortunately, two of them were arguing the toss, while the third was doing absolutely _nothing_!

"I ain't movin' from this spot!" barked Terriermon in rage; he couldn't believe he was being left out of whooping the Digimon Kaiser's ass.

"I have to agree with the dog-boy over here!" Renamon voice out her own input inclining to agree with her fellow Digimon.

"Hey! I'm a RABBIT!

"Not if I have any say in it!" growled BlackGuilmon.

"Yeah, as if you can..." Terriermon was abruptly cut short.

Renamon spun around to see what had happened to her fellow rebellious Digimon. "What the..." unfortunately, she was too slow in reacting, and all she could see was a blurry image of someone standing over her.

"I'm sorry Renamon, Terriermon. There was no other way" Takato muttered apologetically. He had the hilt of his kodachi drawn slightly.

"Guardromon pick these two buffoons up and drag their asses to the Real World if you have to!" grunted Cyberdramon, not liking the time that was wasted as the Kaiser would be closing in on them any moment now.

"Right no problem!" Guardromon propelled himself into the air a couple of feet off the ground. He then flung Terriermon over his right shoulder, and picked up Renamon slowly into his arms, knowing that she was excruciatingly exhausted from before.

Guardromon then started gliding towards the data stream-looking portal. "Good luck guys" he whispered. He took one long last look at his home, the Digital World. _"Won't be long now Kazu"_ he thought as he flew into the portal, being immersed in the bright light.

Takato smiled, now there was no hindrances blocking his way; he was ready to party. "Guys gear up! I sense he is approximately 10 seconds away at most".

"I take it then his slug of a serpent will be embarking over the ridge, just... about... now!" Cyberdramon roared in surprise raising his arm guards in a defensive motion.

"Just about on time... right Guilmon?" Takato echoed over to his partner.

"Damn straight! Aren't you getting a bit sluggish... MetalSeadramon?" he teased the Mega Digimon.

Raised in front of the three, about 40 feet tall, covered in metal and light blue coloured skin, stood the Mega level Digimon. Takato's eyes squinted towards the top; he could just about spy two objects. One of them spoke. "This time Takato Matsuki, you will not come out of here alive!" a serious tone lashed out from the voice of the Digimon Kaiser.

**Chapter 5 Completed**

**I know it's been over a year since I last updated! I'm really sorry for all the people who were waiting for this to be continued at a fast pace. A lot has happened in the last year, finally got a new job in the past month or so. So I am dedicating the majority of my weekends now to updating this story and getting it up to scratch.**

**Like I said in my AN at the beginning, I already have 6 done, I just want to give it the once over, check that everything that I have actually planned out works in sync with the rest of the story so far and the stuff I have planned for the future. I will definitely tone down the foul language in this fic, even though it is an M rated fic, I don't like there being curse words every two sentences. (Let me just point out, Kazu and Ryo have go through quite a bit since Takato has left the Real World 3 years prior. This will be explained in future).**

**I hope this has rejuvenated anyone who has previously read this story to continue reading, because without you guys, there would be no fic.**

**And just before I forget, Happy Early Easter (even though it's not for a few weeks in England yet) :D**

**Phrases**


	6. Provoking The Kaiser And Enter Hypnos

**AltairN: Hello everybody! :D**

**AltairN: Here is Chapter 6 of Digimon Tamers: TKoD.**

**AltairN: Hope you enjoy reading this chapter. I should have chapter 7 out soon though. But for now...**

**Takato: This is an official Disclaimer; AltairNamikaze does not own Digimon. And that is a FACT!**

**AltairN: On with the story. :D**

* * *

"_**Rock Crusher!"**_ BlackGuilmon yelled; and with enormous force, his claws drove into the ground, emitting dark thrashes of energy traversing through the rocky terrain. A wall made entirely out of rock suddenly erected from beneath them and shot up in front of them, becoming a makeshift barrier.

"_**Desolation Claw!"**_ Cyberdramon screamed with excitement in his voice. He had waited for this moment for a long time. They were finally going to _crush_ the Digimon Kaiser. He also drove his hands into the ground, piercing the rock with ease. The force shock the entire ground around them all. He forced his energy claws towards the rock wall BlackGuilmon had made... and shoved the entire thing forward; heading straight for the Digimon Kaiser.

"Come on let's move!" Takato yelled over the incredible loud noise the two moves were creating, their destination was the Digi-Portal.

"I'm right behind ya!"Cyberdramon yelled. He hurried after his human friend, hot on his heels.

BlackGuilmon turned back to the portal, then back to the Kaiser. "Fuck you Kaiser! You can't stop us! And you never will!" he stuck up two claws and waved them about like a flag. He then turned once more towards the Digi-Portal and ran full speed for it.

"_**River of Power!"**_ a voice echoed behind the earth wall. Vibrations began to rumble around the whole terrain, causing the three to stop and look around.

"Oh God!" Takato realised that it was MetalSeadramon that was causing the rock to crumble beneath them at a rapid pace. "Don't stop and look; just move!" he yelled. That shout managed to wake up Cyberdramon and BlackGuilmon out of their daydream slumbers.

"Crap!" Cyberdramon annoyed that he was caught off guard. He turned and began running towards the portal. BlackGuilmon and Takato followed closely behind.

Suddenly, everything began slowing down, according to Takato. He could see the attack that MetalSeadramon had created heading towards them, but it was going at a snail's pace. He tried to glance around quickly; however, his body was reacting at the same speed as everything around him. His head was turning around to the front incredibly slowly; he saw BlackGuilmon and Cyberdramon moving incredibly slowly as well.

"_What the hell?"_ his eyes widened as time seemed to slow down. He could see the ground beneath them was breaking up even slower. _"We're not gonna make it!"_ he mentally screamed in fear.

Suddenly, everything began speeding back up; Takato could move normally and freely again. "CLIMB!" was the first word that left his lips; anxious for his comrades to start climbing up.

The surface around them began to tear up; and with each passing moment, the three of them had to jump from rock to rock soon or be obliterated by MetalSeadramon's destruction.

BlackGuilmon and Cyberdramon both heard their leader, nodding in recognition. "You ready?" asked Cyberdramon. BlackGuilmon grunted, "First one to the portal wins!" he smirked. Cyberdramon laughed in anticipation, "Right, you're on!" he grinned.

Both Digimon set off at a blistering pace, shooting past Takato in the process; who was trying his best to jump upwards. Obviously with him not being a Digimon, things were going to be a bit more difficult for him.

"_Climb, climb, climb. Come on body, CLIMB!"_ he mentally urged his body to move onwards and upwards. He started jump from rock to rock, only small distances apart so that he could get used to the feel of jumping. _"Yeh, I'm getting this now. I'll be there in no time guys!"_ he smirked. He looked upwards; he could just about spy out BlackGuilmon near the portal, while Cyberdramon was even closer.

With one final jump and front flip, Cyberdramon was the first one to reach the portal, albeit that he was half way up; almost hitting the first Digital barrier in the process.

"_Shit! It's getting hard to breathe the higher we go!"_ he gasped mentally. "Hurry... the... fuck... UP!" he wheezed out, realising that he wouldn't be able to stay there any longer, he launched himself through the data stream portal. "See you... on the... other... side!" he yelled, as he vanished from existence.

Takato was now struggling to reach the higher boulders. He also had to contend with MetalSeadramon's attack coming for them. He had only just managed to haul his body onto the current boulder, but was finding it difficult in which way he could go next. _"Damn, I guess I have no choice... I'll have to get my kodachi out!"_ he mentally cursed unsheathing his blade in the process. Steadying his blade he then readied himself for the worst... and did a running jump upwards towards a near-looking boulder...

Sadly, he was a good foot away from the surface of it. _"Tough shit!"_ he mentally screamed, and rammed the blade into the underside of the steady-rising boulder. Now he had to figure how he was going to manoeuvre himself on top of the boulder. Try as he might, he couldn't make his body respond. _"Crap! Is this it? Is this were I fall?"_ he thinking in his mind. _"It doesn't matter anyway. Everybody is already out, home free... except me!"_ he sighed. His hand slipped further down his blade hilt. "I really messed up this time..." he spoke to no-one in particular.

"I doubt it!" a voice echoed above him.

He smiled, "I should have known you wouldn't have left yet!" he guided his head upwards... and saw BlackGuilmon holding a claw towards him. Takato manage to grasp the lifeline he was given, and BlackGuilmon hoisted him up onto the boulder. He brushed his shoulders off and grinned at BlackGuilmon, "What you say that we party on a different world?" BlackGuilmon chuckled darkly, "I couldn't agree with you more, Takato!"

"Let's move!" he yelled.

Both of them shot off with renewed vigour towards the portal, BlackGuilmon giving Takato a boost every step of the way.

Will the final boulder just ahead of them, BlackGuilmon had a flash of ingenuity spark his brain. "Takato let me get on your shoulders; I have a plan on how we can go out with style! Haha!" he laughed joyously.

"Now's not the time to think of one of _**your stupid, ingenious**_ plans, Guilmon!" Takato threw a disgusting look at the reptile Digimon.

"Oh just shut up!" moaned BlackGuilmon who grabbed Takato's right shoulder and shoved him down. He then steadied himself and got a firm grip on Takato's shoulders, "Come on Takato, move!" he yelled over the rushing noise coming ever so closer to them. "Bloody hell Guilmon! What the HELL did you EAT this morning?" he grunted. "How about that 2 tonne of sand we were cover under. Thanks to _**YOUR**_ bright idea!" he huffed in annoyance. "Heh whatever!" Takato smirked, not going to admit that it was in fact his fault.

Suddenly, Takato noticed an all too familiar feeling emitting from right in front of them. He cursed inwardly, realising that they should have not wasted time somewhere else. What was above, in front of him was the Digital Portal... or what was left off it, being... very... quickly... deleted!

"SCREW THE PLAN GUILMON! WE'RE NOT GONNA MAKE IT!" Takato screamed.

Unfortunately, BlackGuilmon didn't hear him... or he decided just to ignore him.

BlackGuilmon on instinct drug his feet into Takato's shoulders, urging him to go quicker. Takato did just that and when he reached the edge of the final boulder he ascended into mid-air, all most like flying... but with BlackGuilmon, he felt like he weighed a tonne.

Suddenly, BlackGuilmon jarred his claws into the final boulder above them, and with an almighty roar, _swung_ them both _upwards_, soaring towards the remnants of the portal. Now both facing upside down and the wrong way, Takato was sweating bullets. "WHAT THE FUCK GUILMON?" he screamed, not seeing were his body was heading.

"REAL WORLD HERE WE COME! WAAAAHAAAAAAA!" BlackGuilmon whooped with maniacal ecstasy, as they flashed through the portal just as it turned in nothingness.

The energy shockwave that was previously heading towards them blew up directly where the portal was seconds before. Rocks and other debris were sent flying, with the dust spreading everywhere, blinding the view of a one pissed off Digimon Kaiser. As the miniature dust storm came to a halt, the Kaiser swept through it, hoping to catch the Tamer and his partner off guard. What he saw though, was not what he expected...

There in front of him were the remnants of the destruction his pet MetalSeadramon had made, and a lone kodachi blade was slightly protruding out of a boulder. The Kaiser's facial expression turned from a maniacal gleeful look, to a passive, stone-faced look; to a damn right furious facade. His eyebrows furrowed in annoyance over his black sunglasses, however you could tell his eyes were looking like they were going to pop out of their sockets at any moment. His hands clenched into fists in a furious rage, his head arced upwards, towards the Real World; and screamed...

"Damn you TAKATO MATSUKIIIIIIIII!"

* * *

An elderly man, looking to be in his mid-50's, with a very receding black hair-line; was sat behind a large oak desk marking a pile of his paperwork. _'Damn thing will be the death of me!'_ he though while starring at the daunting stack of said paperwork.

He sighed, and glanced out of his incredibly large office window, and noticed some kids on the school field doing something they shouldn't have been doing. "Damn kids, always getting themselves into trouble! I've got enough on my plate without handing out detention slips every bloody day!" he sighed.

Suddenly, a knock came at his door... "Yes? Come in!" he barked out a bit too forceful, not that he didn't intend it mind you. The golden handle of the large, nicely polished oak door, turned with a swift push and the door swung open. "Your coffee break, sir" the elderly woman spoke quietly. She was holding a large tray of what looked like an assorted tray of drinks and biscuits.

"Ah Doris, thank you!" his face contorted from a frown into a thousand-watt smile. "You always know when I'm considerably stressed out. How do you do it?" he laughed. Doris just produced a small smile back at the headmaster as she walked up to the fine polished desk and placed the tray gently down on the one side it didn't have any paper.

"I have my ways" she chuckled softly, _'and intuition of course!'_ she smiled inwardly. "Oh, I almost forgot. Mr. Yamaki is downstairs at the reception waiting for you."

"Huh, Mr. Yamaki? You mean Mitsuo Yamaki, the CEO of _Hypnos_?" he looked stunned that a major figure-head would be visiting _his_ school _today_! "Yes, did you forget?" Doris asked, wondering if he was alright. Suddenly, realisation dawned onto the Headmaster's face, "C...crap and you mean _that one_ is _today_? Argh!" he groaned in frustration, rushing to get his suit jacket on and making sure that everything else was correct and ready. He nodded in confirmation. He then spun back around to face the elderly woman, "Tell him that I am on my way down now please Doris!" he spoke in a stern voice. _"Must have business mode installed into his head!"_ she mentally mused. "Yes sir! Right away sir!" and she scurried off out of the room.

The man did a once over of his office, nodding his head in approval; he spun on his heel and began to walk out of the office. He stopped suddenly and turned back towards his desk. He quickly picked up the coffee on the tray and swigged it down in one large gulp. _'Damn it Yamaki! You know I don't like long, boring speeches!'_ he thought as he shut his door and began his descent towards the main office.

* * *

About 5 minutes after the door had closed; a bright light suddenly covered the whole room. It then died down almost immediately, and you could just about see a small glimmer coming from the 40" Plasma TV screen.

Suddenly, three figures burst out of the screen, managing to roll onto the floor and smashed into the solid oak desk sending paper and other bits and pieces flying everywhere. The biggest of the three had the other two close to his body in case anyone had decided to come in. "Oww, Jesus that hurt like a bitch!" Leomon groaned.

Leomon's eyes went around the room, scanning for anyone or _anything_ that seems weird. He breathed a sigh of relief, thankfully he saw nothing suspicious. He got up slowly, releasing the other two in the process. "Where are we?" spoke a muffled Lopmon. "Pipi pipipi pi pi pipi!" squeaked Marineangemon in elation. "I think... we're back. I think it actually worked!" Leomon looked awestruck at the room around them; particularly impressed with the size of the window.

"Wow! I never thought it would actually work. I... I guess we own Takato a thank you when he gets here" Lopmon spoke quietly.

"_That's __**if**__ he gets here..."_ muttered Leomon ruefully. "Anyway, I need you to cover for Terriermon, Marineangemon." The angel Digimon responded proudly, "Pipipi pi pipi!" she smiled. He turned to Lopmon, "You already know what to do, don't you?" Lopmon nodded in recognition, "Wakarimashita!"

"Right" Leomon turned to face the huge pane of glass that was the office's window. He cocked back his fist, ready to strike. _**"Fist of the Beast King!"**_ he roared. His fist emitted into a bright golden flame and he slammed it into the glass. It impacted with the 7 inch thick glass, cracking ever so slightly, but sending a vibration as violent as an earthquake across the whole school. "Whoa!" screamed Lopmon in fear. Finally, the cracks were getting bigger, and the glass gave way; shattering into a thousand pieces sprawled all over the deep red carpet.

"Now go!" he roared. Lopmon and Marineangemon nodded, and they both flew off towards downtown Shinjuku.

* * *

_5 minutes before..._

The man was slowly approaching the entrance of Shinjuku High school. He was wearing a three piece suit and sunglasses. "I haven't been here in nearly two years" he muttered. A tall, slender woman with dark auburn hair tied back into a ponytail, along with a beige jacket flung over her left shoulder; stood next to him. She nudged him, "I'm sure they'll be glad to see you."

They entered the main reception and the young woman spoke, while the man stood off to one side. "Ahem, how may I help you?" a young woman behind the desk asked. "Could you please inform Mr. Masahiro, the headmaster; that Mr. Yamaki is here to see him" she replied politely.

The woman behind the desk looked up so fast it sounded like she had nearly snapped her neck. Her eyes were wide in shock, "Mr. Yamaki was it?" she stuttered. Riley nodded, "Yes, I believe that we have an urgent appointment with him today at 1 o'clock!" she spoke calmly.

"No problem. I'll get someone to head up to his office right away and inform him of your arrival!" the young woman spoke sharply. "DORIS! Can you head up to the headmaster's office and inform him that his appointment is here!"

Suddenly, an old lady walked out of the reception double doors with a tray full of assorted items on top. She nodded her head in acknowledgement and went off to find the headmaster.

"He should be down here shortly!" the young woman reassured Yamaki and Riley.

_5 minutes later..._

"Ah Mr. Yamaki, it is an honour to meet you!" the headmaster was currently walking over towards them. Suddenly, he realised something important, "Ah, where are my manners. I am Yamato Masahiro, headmaster of Shinjuku High!" he stuck out his hand in a warm welcome gesture.

Yamaki made a small smile, and put his hand out to meet with Yamato's. "The honour is all mine. I am Mitsuo Yamaki, head CEO of Hypnos". Yamato smiled, "What say we take this upstairs to my office?" he asked. Yamaki nodded, "Not a problem. I believe the _things_ we have to discuss are better when no prying eyes and ears can interrupt us!" he smiled.

"Right then it is settled. If you wouldn't mind, follow me!" he spoke joyously. The now party of three began moving towards the flights of stairs that would take them to the headmaster's office... but what they didn't know was that _someone_ was _waiting_... waiting for _them_!

* * *

_Barely 2 minutes later..._

"WHOA! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?" screamed Mr. Masahiro grasping hold of the nearest stair rail; hanging onto it for dear life.

"I DON'T KNOW!" yelled Yamaki over the noise of the unknown shaking. He was covering Riley, mainly in protection, in case anything fell from above.

Suddenly, it stopped...

"Is everyone alright?" asked Riley, her voice muffled from how close she was to Yamaki.

"Yeah, I guess so" mumbled Yamato, coughing to clear himself.

"Do you know what the _hell that was_?" his sudden calm demeanour reversed as quickly as it had come; as he began shouting at Yamaki in worried concern for his school and its pupils.

"Myself personally... no I have no idea" he grunted as he got up from the floor, handing his hand to Riley in the process.

"_However, I think... vaguely... I know it!"_ Yamaki mentally said to himself.

He was so caught up in his thinking that Riley had to shake him; "Yamaki, did you hear that?" she spoke again. "Hmm... sorry what was that Riley?" he asked as she bumped him out of his thoughts.

"Did you not just hear that Mr. Yamaki?" spoke an enraged Yamato who turned on him. "_That voice_ I just heard came out over the loudspeaker. _That_ means that whatever made that _attack_ is now in my beloved office!" he bellowed ferociously.

"And what did this voice actually say?" he quizzed the elderly man.

Riley then took the opportunity to lean over towards Yamaki's right ear and whisper something into his ear...

His eyes widened in realisation!

"Holy shit!" he whispered, he then began to run towards the Headmaster's office; with Yamato and Riley wondering what had gotten into him.

"Don't just stand there! Come on!" he yelled over his shoulder.

* * *

"Come on guys, where are you? I hope you don't get found out!" Leomon grunted in displeasure.

Suddenly, a bright light engulfed the room once more, causing Leomon to hold up his blades in a defensive position. "What the..." he shouted, while shielding himself against the bright light.

He could just about spy an outline of the approaching figure. "Leomon? IT IS YOU! I'M SO GLAD TO SEE YOU!" he screamed with jubilation emitting from his voice.

Leomon lowered his blade slightly as the blinding light died down and revealed an ecstatic looking Guardromon with two objects over his shoulders.

Leomon sighed, "I think _they_ didn't take it well?" he mused.

Guardromon laughed, "You got that right! Both arguing nonstop at the other two!"

"Guilmon did his stuff then?" he chuckled softly.

Guardromon nodded, "Yeah, knocked 'em both out cold with one swipe. And then he had the audacity to tell me to drag their arses back to the Real World... git!" he groaned.

He noticed that two others were not present. "Where's 'Angemon and Lopmon?" he asked while looking around for the two other Digimon. He then began lowering Renamon and Terriermon to the red velvet floor.

"Ah well. They've already gone ahead with what she and Terriermon were assigned to do originally. I just sent Marineangemon with her as some precautionary backup. They should be back shortly!" Leomon answered.

"Hey I think they're coming round!" mumbled Leomon, not wanting to use his voice up anymore.

Guardromon spun around to look at his fellow Digimon, Terriermon and Renamon. Renamon was the first to come to her senses. "Where... where are we?" she murmured, trying to re-focus her eyesight.

Terriermon managed to stumble himself up onto the desk, and plopped his small, fragile body down. **"Meh... Momentai will yah!"** he groaned while scratching his left ear in exhaustion. He then proceeded to roll around the desk, trying to stumble up onto his feet. "Ow! That hurt!" he rubbed the back of his head. "When I get a hold of _him_, I'll... I'll... oh never mind!" he sighed. "I'm just glad we're back, alive and kickin'!"

Suddenly, two figures flew through the smashed window. "It appears that Lopmon and Marineangemon have returned... but from where?" spoke Guardromon.

"I sent 'Angemon in place of Terriermon and proceeded with the tasks that we were assigned originally. It seems that everything has worked out so far; except for the fact that we all didn't appear at the same time." Leomon sighed. "Figures!" he grunted.

"We... h-have the items, Leomon!" she gasped for breath, as she flopped down onto the desk in anguish. "Pipipi pi pipi pi pipi pipipi pi!" Marineangemon flew exuberantly around the room in excitement as Lopmon put down a number of bags containing various items of clothing near the back of the room.

"Excellent!" Leomon beamed. "All we have to do now is wait for the other three to hopefully get here!"

Suddenly, Renamon's ears pricked up; "A number of humans are coming are way. Two of them I vaguely know, and the other I don't!" she growled in pain from her entire body from using Flash Step from what seemed hours ago when rescuing BlackGuilmon and Takato.

"I suggest we move out of the building and locate to somewhere close. Were we can still see the inside of this room" Guardromon advised.

Leomon nodded, "Good idea! One problem though... were too exactly?"

"Pipi pipi pi pipipi pi pipi!" squeaked Marineangemon and flew over to the large broken window and began zooming around in excitement.

Lopmon translated, "She's saying that when we were coming back from _shopping_ she noticed a level building near the Hypnos building, adjacent to the school".

Renamon's eyes widened, "Hypnos... that's where I remember them from!" she moaned as her vision began to go blurry. She wracked her mind even more to find more valuable information.

Suddenly, an imaginary light bulb lit up in Terriermon's head, making him stir out of his stupor. He had been unusually quiet all this time. "Yamaki... the first one is Yamaki. The second one... I think her name was Riley. Yeah... Riley, if I vaguely remember!"

Leomon shuck his head in a negative motion; "We cannot engage anything or _anyone_ at this moment in time. Not even our Tamers or other friendly allies, unless we get Takato's permission!" he sounded out in a roar.

Guardromon nodded his head in agreement, "I agree with Leomon. Even though the other three haven't arrived yet, we can't risk being seen until he has given us the signal!"

Terriermon groaned, "Momentai, will ya! Let's just move already; before someone will have to carry me again!" he dragged his limping body up to his knees to support himself. "Grrrr! When I get a hold of that a-hole, I'm gonna rip into him like I've never done before!" he grunted, as he finally got to his feet.

Leomon looked around, noticing that Guardromon was still holding Renamon. That would make things easier in moving out of the room, presuming that the three on-coming people where going to enter the office room. "Everyone let's move now, and quickly. I can sense that they are getting closer by the second" he exclaimed.

"Roger!"

Marineangemon shot out of the smashed window like a rocket, with Guardromon; who still had a hold of Renamon, followed behind her. Leomon stood up from his relaxing pose, and motioned Lopmon to get Terriermon. "Terriermon?" she spoke softly. "Mmmph, ah... wha?" he mumbled, it wasn't just his body that was shattered; it looked like his mental state was in a mess. "Let's go, we need to get out of here" she spoke again.

He looked up at her, and she gasped... his face looked like a zombie. "But what about the other three?" he asked slowly. _"His mental state is worse than I thought. He's forgot what we were just talking about literally not five minutes ago!"_ She leant out and grabbed his right paw and squeezed it in encouragement. "Come on Terriermon; I'll guide you" she whispered. _'I'll always guide you!'_ She then turned around towards Leomon and the window, Terriermon still in hand and _jumped_ off; _trying_ to fly. "Ahhhhh!" screamed Terriermon. _'He must have regained his senses back... he's yelling again!'_ Leomon groaned inwardly. He didn't bother looking back at the window and the calamity duo. He could mentally visualise Guardromon yelling about '_Stupid Lovebirds!'_

Once the two dog-bunnies had left the room, via the newly created secondary exit; Leomon took one closer look around the room. Noticing that nothing was out of place; except the broken desk, _"Ah well, it's his problem to deal with, not mine!"_ he proceeded towards the window. Just as he was about hop out off the window ledge, his hearing pricked up at the fact that the doorknob was turning. _"I didn't think they would be here so quickly!"_ and he had to kick off from the wall, _hard_; thus leaving a large crack in the side of the building.

* * *

**CHAPTER 6 COMPLETED**

**AltairN: Well, what did you guys think? I decided to split it up into two different chapters for the sake of getting one out now rather than later.**

**I hope you enjoy reading this fanfic as much as I do writing it. :D**

**I will do my best to get around to looking at people's reviews. I've only just noticed that I haven't commented on anybody's reviews. I will definitely answer them in the next chapter.**

**Cheers :D**

**AltairNamikaze Out!**


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